Chronicles of Halo (After the War) : Part 1 Uprising of a God
by gabriel.soderholm.16
Summary: My first story of a linear Halo progression : involving a ONI controlled squad of Spartan IV's (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Lucifer and Ureal), their involvement with an ancient destroyed forerunner ship slowly opens the battles between man and Covenant...also a new threat arises - The Harbinger - Four other books are uploaded so hurry to catch up; but dont forget to Review!
1. Chapter 1

**"This is Spartan group Kilo – Foxtrot 14 requesting ascension on high value target."  
**  
**Michael 701 jumped backwards as a small brown detonation swung sharp razors past his visor and into his shield system, disappearing as they hit the golden light that encased his armour. The spike grenade had depleted almost 70% of his shields, leaving him vulnerable to another brute attack.  
**  
**He raised his assault rifle warily, watching left mainly as he knew his squad-mate was covering his back and right side. A mass of hulking muscle and hair flew at the Spartan, its rough crude weaponry firing out huge chunks of red plasma. Michael reacted quickly; firing his primary weapon at the beast and quickly neutralising it. These brutes were easy compared to what he was used to, as they didn't have any power armour or regulation weaponry – they were a joke compared to the covenant Storm elites. Despite this, the Spartan felt uneasy as he walked ahead – he knew the target was close by, and if history was anything to go by then this brute Chieftain would be carrying a Gravity Hammer or something alike it.  
**  
**"701? This is Gabriel, move ahead and keep your eyes open. I can't see a thing with this fog but I can guarantee he isn't behind you." Another Spartan spoke through his radio coms, the same squad mate that was watching the entire situation through his sniper rifle up behind him.  
**  
**Michael sighed and walked ahead, grabbing the shotgun from his back and cocking it ready. He wasn't exactly new to the squad, but he could still sense they belittled him from time to time, it was ok though – he was used to it. He was a member of the Spartan IV project on loan to the ONI formation, after enlisting with the rest of his comrades – Michael had been given away for use by the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was given a squad, a five man unit of well-trained Spartan IV's and had been ordered to hunt and assassinate the last remaining Jiralhanae Generals from the old Covenant. Right now he was on the old wreck of a moon, orbiting a long lost human colony planet named "Trident", the entire planet had been glassed from orbit a long time ago, but the target Brute Chieftain had been sighted here – and thus the Spartan IV's were sent.  
**  
**701 shook of his daydreaming memories and swiftly rechecked his Assault Rifle's ammunition count, the Chieftain had slipped into this old human settlement, and Michael knew he couldn't get too far away. A red beacon activated against the Spartan's HUD radar swiftly to the right, Michael smiled at this; the Brutes were never good at stealth – not even Chieftain's.  
**  
**"Gabriel, this is Michael – I've got confirmation on the target. Keep a sharp visual and hand on the trigger."**  
**"I know how to snipe Rookie, just do your job."**  
**"Cut the chatter Spartans, just get it done." A third voice spoke, the authoritarian.  
**  
**Michael shook his head in anger; they didn't even let him request assistance any more The red beacon flashed closer as the two Spartans had argued, leaving the Spartan vulnerable. Suddenly a volley of brute shot bullets smashed into his shields, quickly depleting 100% of his over encased golden bubble. The Spartan was completely vulnerable to any more brute fire; he had never had his shields depleted so quickly before and that made him scared. A large brutish warrior stood to Michael's left, carrying a brute shot and encased in light renegade armour.  
**  
**A sniper round quickly smashed into the Brute's lower thigh, dropping it to its knees in agony; another round emptied into its neck. A harsh roar was quickly shut of as the Jiralhanae's vocal cords ceased to operate. Two more red dots emanated on Michael's radar as the fog started to clear, a Brute chieftain and bodyguard stood before him, both encased in heavy power armour. The Chieftain carried a heavy Gravity Hammer and the other brute shot-gunned a massive Fuel Rod Cannon. They turned and roared out their defiance at him, their lower tusks forming a fierce perspective of their large hairy ape like faces.  
**  
**Michael reacted immediately, jumping to his side and grabbing the Brute Shot within a second. Within two seconds he had started reloading the weapon, and within four he had started firing the crude weapon at the second Brute.**  
**"Open Fire!" Gabriel shouted from behind, his sniper rifle spewing out long rounds into the Brute Chieftain. It reacted immediately and activated its short term invincibility shields, they sparked around the monster quickly – creating an impenetrable red flash of energy sparks. The sniper rounds simply bounced of the shields, leaving less than a dent in the red energy.  
**  
**Michael had barely paid attention, he had immediately fired the brute shot at the second target, letting the six rounds of small impact grenades spew into the monster. The Jiralhanae warrior roared as the last grenade flung him backwards into the wall. Brown blood seeped through his armour as the inside armour pieces were overwhelmed with broken bones and torn muscles.**  
**A roar escaped his gaping tusks as he ran forward, the weaponry forgotten as he lunged towards the Spartan IV who had attempted to kill him. Every thundering step sent spirals of pain up the creature, but the rage in his mind and heart kept him running with nothing more than an adrenaline and lust for death. **  
**The Spartan reacted immediately, dodging the rampaging brute and attempting to reload his brute shot quickly.  
**  
**CLACK – The weapon jammed within a couple of seconds. Michael looked back up into the eyes of the frenzied Jiralhanae warrior and reassured his grip on the weaponry. Then with the strength of a true Spartan he swung the entire gun around, using the bayonet on the back as a melee weapon to slash the brute's neck open and kill it almost immediately.  
**  
**"Target Bravo neutralised" Michael spoke quickly while dropping the weapon; he grabbed the assault rifle from his back and immediately started firing at the brute Chieftain. However his bullets simply ricocheted of the energy shields, leaving no marks and seemingly only aggravating the beast. **  
**It screamed at him, grabbing the Gravity Hammer from its sheath and activating it quickly; suddenly the monster smashed down on the ground creating sparks and a wave of gravity into the air. The distraction was enough to pause both Spartans from firing, which was enough for the Jiralhanae. **  
**With a snort, the chieftain turned its back and fled.  
**  
**"Target Alpha is fleeing! Raphael!? You got this one?" Gabriel panicked in his radio headset, "Michael, tail the brute and report in."**  
**The Spartan IV coughed once and nodded before running after the target.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Foolish Human-scum, to challenge the might of O Extrotarus is a simple act of death, I act on the will of the Prophets, and no Demons or Shanghelli will prevent the oncoming fire that will take them all.  
_The brute chieftain was quick to flee the scene, allowing his heavy armour to compensate for the depletion of his Invincibility shields, as he ran out of the building and aimed for his emergency vehicle.

A trio of covenant banshee's lay on the middle of an old hanger bay, the same banshee's these brutes had arrived in, but only he would leave. What did it matter? The Jiralhanae had died in battle; they would have had it no other way.

The Chieftain smacked his gravity hammer back onto his back and ran for the nearest banshee; he still had conquests to fulfil and a destination to head to.  
Something flickered from the left; a red set of armour detached itself from the hidden background and walked forward casually as the Jiralhanae climbed into the banshee flier.  
Then with a grunt, the Spartan fired his primary weapon at the space ships; two heat seeking *jack-hammer rockets swung through the air, leaving a streak of smoke in their wake as they hunted down the banshee's.  
With two definite and resounding smacks, the banshee's exploded and formed together under a blue and purple fiery mushroom – sparks and hunks of metal were flung across the entire hanger, some of them glancing of the Spartan IV's shields and bouncing of the golden energy that encased it.  
Raphael watched over the destruction he wrought, watching critically for any brute Chieftain that may have survived the two jackhammer rockets.  
To the left, movement caught his attention. Another Spartan was running up to him, encased in simple regulation green armour; Michael.

"You got him?" the Recruit asked while puffing for breath.  
Raphael didn't answer, instead deciding to watch for the target to reappear from the fire. And soon enough, a massive figure stumbled up to his knees; all the hair burned of his skin and armour blown off by the explosive fire.  
The Chieftain grabbed his gravity hammer from the floor; it had been miraculously untouched by the explosive and still operable.

The creature roared in desperate anger and thundered forward, straight for the two Spartan IV's with its gravity hammer raised high.  
"How oddly predictable" Raphael snorted as he pulled the shotgun from his back holster, the creature simply sprang forward without thought or process, straight into the path of the Spartan.  
Michael opened fire immediately; firing his assault rifle into the thick unprotected hide of the Jiralhanae and watching the brown blood splatter out.

The other Spartan fired his shotgun twice, watching with shock as the bullets entered the brute's chest and doing absolutely nothing to slow the creature down.  
"Scatter!" Michael shouted as he realised the rounds did an almost minimal effect on the rampaging chieftain. Quickly, the Spartan shoved Raphael to the side as the brute smashed down his gravity hammer.  
The resounding shock wave sent them both backwards onto the hanger floor, sparks and energy covered Michael as the hanger floorboards almost ruptured. Smoke covered his vision as his HUD flashed red, his energy shields completely depleted by the near death experience.  
Suddenly a sharp pain grabbed both sides of his visor; the powerful force lifted the Spartan IV into the air with menial effort. Michael opened his eyes to the sight of the Brute Chieftain roaring savagely at him while carrying him up from the floor.

The pain intensified as the creature tightened its talons around the Spartans helmet. His visor started cracking within seconds as the brute continued to crush the skull of this human.  
Suddenly an invisible entity appeared behind the brute and Spartan, another Spartan IV encased in jet black armour crept up to the alpha target. Grabbing a knife from the armour pit in his sleeve, the Spartan stabbed into the brute's lower chest right up into the ribs.

Brown blood splattered all over the soldier's knife and right hand, the entire weight of the Jiralhanae fell to the floor in a manner of seconds, dropping Michael in the process.  
"Get up 701, and wake Raphael – our ride is here."  
Michael looked up into the golden visor of the black encased Spartan in shock and joy.  
"Nice to see you to Lucifer."


	3. Chapter 3

"Your late Spartans"  
The cold harsh containment room was less inviting then a covenant corvette with almost zero ventilation or portable items. At the centre of the small, dimly lit room sat an ONI operator by a heavily orchestrated desk. The five Spartans stood at the base of the desk uncomfortably, observing the operator and noticing the power this woman may possess.

"Apologies Ma'am, it won't happen again." Ureal spoke loudly, her back posture tightening as she performed the courtesy salutation. She had been commander of all five Spartans for at least a month now, Michael considered her leadership in contrast to other Spartans – well they could do a lot worse, but only barely.  
Gabriel stood to his left, his heavy blue armour barely concealing the blood lines down his left flank; Raphael at front and Lucifer behind him, as usual. They had reported directly into the ONI operations as soon as they had touched back down on the UNSC Battle Cruiser "Red Dusk, possibly for another brute hunting mission.

Lieutenant Drafter sat in front of them, somehow looking formidable then a Hunter even though she had to be half the size of a fully grown Shanghalli. She pierced her gaze at Lucifer, the elusive Spartan that always seemed to avoid her conversations and demands.  
"Kilo Foxtrot 14, we have a new objective as per accordance due to the UNSC priority 2 agreement clause."  
Michael shook his head in bewilderment; this priority concerned the newly hatched 'cease fire' agreement between mankind and the Shanghalli. Whatever objective this was, it was important enough for an ONI operator to personally look over.

Ureal nodded once, approving this information for the whole team.  
"Estimated slip-space jump is at 2030 hours past zone, your Spartan squad needs to be prepped for anything on the other side, understood?"  
Ureal spoke swiftly, not allowing any other soldier to speak for her, "Affirmative," and without a seconds notice, the meeting was over as abruptly as it had begun.  
The Spartans walked down the corridor together, they had a familiar goal in this ship, and only a few hours before they had to prepare themselves for another objective.  
"This is the biggest load of Bullsh*t," Raphael swore as the entered the Spartan infirmary; he grabbed onto the nearest auto-detaching unit and let it slowly ease the armour of him.  
Ureal spoke quickly, "Hey, can it Raphael, we've got orders and we will follow them without question."

"Your fine with this Ureal?" Gabriel slowly drawled, "ONI doesn't even have the liberty to tell us what were up against anymore."  
Michael nodded his approval, or at least tried to while the detaching unit ripped the helmet of his face. The black Spartan in the corner didn't say anything, choosing as always to stay quiet in most situations. They had all noticed that Lucifer had only ever been chatty whilst in the middle of battle or when he needed to be.

Raphael finished first, tugging himself free of the machine and hurrying to the armoury in order to fine-tune and prepare his weaponry. Ureal hurried to get into the training arena, willing to hone her skills before the next battle. Lucifer had stayed in his armour, not revealing his face or traits to anyone, and had walked straight off to his private quarters.  
"Hey Michael, you hungry? Mess hall is calling." Gabriel spoke quickly as he left the room, not waiting for Michael to catch up to him.  
Reconceiving over a short set of food seemed like the smarter idea at this time, as they always did.

After settling down with the typical UNSC marines and operators, Michael grabbed himself some regulation rice with chicken. He was exhausted, hunting brute Chieftains had been a task harder than thought out or imagined.  
Gabriel sat with the Spartan, letting the food create a silence between them two – but it was something they shared after every mission, and therefore was important to them.  
It was their chance to be human.


	4. Chapter 4

"50 minutes to zero hour" A beacon activated all over the 'Red Dusk's' control panels and radio coms. The slip-space drives started to hum up with power, blue energy flashed out of the Battle Cruiser's primary engines as they ran into a stigmatic overload function.

Lieutenant Drafter stood by the main control deck observing over the pilots and their functions in the operation. Everything was going as according to plan, and if this worked flawlessly then mankind would be at least 50 steps above every other race in the galaxy.  
She smiled at that, as soon as mankind was close enough to this new technology discovered, and ready to harvest its samples – well she could honestly say the Covenant wouldn't ever bother them again.

**Meanwhile**  
"Michael hurry the hell up!" Ureal almost screamed at him as the machine attached armour onto the Spartan IV. The entire squad was waiting for him; it was almost as if he was letting them down. It was less than 40 minutes to zero hour, and he wasn't even prepped yet!  
"Nearly there," Michael spoke as the helmet attached itself to his face, his voice changed from muffled into a loud orchestrated radio com that immediately reached into his team-mates helmet radios.  
"Let's just leave him." Raphael growled as he positioned the grenade launcher onto his shoulder back holster, Lucifer said nothing but simply watched the event play out. Gabriel looked over to the young recruit and also said nothing.  
"No, Lieutenant Drafter wants the whole squad present," Ureal spoke, in a matter of fact tone and voice.  
_Jesus, these guys are impatient, _Michael shook his head as the machine released him, letting the heavy Mjolnir armour clunk to the ground, within seconds he had stood up and started grabbing his weaponry.

"Jesus Christ rookie, we got brutes to kill." Raphael almost swore and started heading out of the door. Gabriel and Lucifer followed suit, leaving Ureal in the armoury alone with him.  
"Sorry commander, it won't happen again" Michael grumbled as he grabbed the UNSC Battle Rifle from the shelf and immediately slinging it onto his back. Turning around he realised that Ureal was staring at him with a deep anger, well it was hard to tell when they were all encased in armour.  
"Don't let down my squad again rookie or it will be the worse for you."  
The Spartan nodded in nervous anticipation and followed his commander out of the room, keen for the objective ahead and anything but that one sided conversation.  
Catching up to the squad the Spartan IV's readied their weaponry and energy shields for anything that could threaten them. Raphael led the group, anxious to get back into the fight without further interruptions or issues.

"Spartans? You're late, again." Lieutenant Drafter's voice emanated from all their radio coms, disapproval could be heard from her tone.  
"Sorry ma'am, we had another hiccup." Ureal spoke back into her radio, anger in her voice as she glanced towards Michael.  
"Noted, the launch is in less than 5 minutes, just get by the hanger bay pelicans and await further instructions."  
"Affirmative"  
The squad sprinted past, up into the hanger bay cockpits and waiting for any noise that could alert them of their location and purpose.

**Meanwhile**  
"Where are they?"  
Lieutenant Drafter replied back coolly, "Serving as unablely as they can in the hanger bay, they are tools… nothing more."  
The pilot shook his head in confusion but continued his work under the strict supervision of the ONI operator. A beacon activated at his left, alarming him for a short time but allowing the entire cockpit's occupants to realise they had slip-space availability to their destination.  
"Slip-space drive is ready ma'am, we go on your signal."

Drafter looked over the eternal cosmos of space, watching the stars blink in and out – wondering and pondering over the many thousands possibilities out there, possibilities that would become real soon enough.  
"Do it."

The UNSC battle cruiser 'Red Dusk' hummed for a short moment, before creating a large slip-space portal in front of itself. Within seconds the entire vehicle had transferred forward into it, sending it into the unknown reaches of space and their hopeful destination.


	5. Chapter 5

_An interruption in order to inform me of another setback, it seems our progress will be limited  
_Shipmaster Ya'Kai of the covenant corvette 'Reconciliation of Lies" stood by the council of bickering Shanghalli around the supreme table of his own corvette.

The field marshal's two zealot apprentices stood at either side of him, never wavering and never doubting but somehow different in plausible ways. This subject of debate had started with the humans, but continued back onto their corvette- something Ya'kai found most unpleasing.  
After the war, the alliance between Human and Shanghalli had tightened, becoming an unstoppable partnership in the universe when it came to petty human insurrections and brute uprisings.

The Priority 2 agreement had saved many races from the idea of a human/covenant war for at least 20 years and had continued this brotherhood of unity between the two races.  
After this new discovery on the outcast un-named planet, ONI operations had set forward a simple task force on their UNSC frigate to investigate alongside the Shanghalli Corvette, as the priority agreement issued a law saying that all new discoveries would be founded by a team of Humans and Shanghalli, no exceptions.

Currently the planet was being orbited by the two ships simultaneously, the UNSC frigate "Wary Warden" and the corvette "Reconciliation of lies". _  
_Everything had worked properly and with accordance to the rules, except the humans had demanded first discovery of this new marvel they had found crashed into the planet.  
The reminiscent's of a forerunner carrier ship, smashed into the planet's side from millions of years ago and almost focalized in its current state.  
_  
_This discovery would assist both races in so many technological advancements of the centuries, as well as officially tie together mankind and Shanghalli under the same banner.  
Unless problems arise, in which in this case – they have been.  
Ya'kai grimaced as he remembered the communications with the humans, they had demanded their scientists to investigate the ship before Shanghalli would even step foot on the planet; claiming that 'humans could interact with the forerunner's in a more diplomatic solution'. The Shanghalli were sick of mankind's greed and lack of compassion for others, but the Priority 2 Agreement had to be followed; else they could all plunge into war again.

"The human filth have been lying to us, they have used our slip-space technology to get here first in order to corrupt the forerunner technology!" Ya'Kai's first Zealot roared, a large Shanghalli clad in blood red armour and a violent hatred.

"Peace brother" the second Zealot spoke, a calmer and wiser creature; technically a Royal Zealot as he was clad in golden armour, "The humans wish no damage onto us, we should respect their wishes and soon enough grant our own council with the forerunner ship."  
The generals and ultra's present roared out either against or for the said statement, either way it was all just noise to the Field Marshall Ship Master.  
"Enough" Ya'Kai spoke, his voice sharp enough to slice through both arguments with ease, "A council with the humans is imperative for the priority 2 agreement to be put under place, however I assure you that our personal council with the forerunner ship is a goal I will see succeeded."  
The other elites remained silent in humility to Ya'Kai's statement, they both feared to speak up and admired the way this Ship Master had tackled the issue.  
He dismissed them all, except for the Royal Zealot; the only Shanghalli who had voiced up with the opinion of peace in contrast to warfare.  
"Mort'ang" He spoke slowly to his apprentice, "You speak with peace and treaties on your mind, it is true that the priority 2 agreement is settled unto your mind,"

The Royal Zealot nodded once, accepting and agreeing with the statement.  
"Good, it is important to know one's own stance on this front."  
Mort'ang pondered this before replying, his mandibles parting back sharply, "You speak as if we are the blade of a sword, ready to plunge itself into the belly of war."  
Amusement sparkled the Ship master's eyes, "If only it were that simple now, but nay; the times we live in are of confusion and treaties, make sure you remember that."  
"Of course I will sire, but I'm unsure whether Ta'ark will do as I"  
"Your brother Zealot will have to follow as I command, he is no danger as of late; but with the right push that Shanghalli might resort to extremes with the humans, you must make sure that doesn't happen; we have more than just our honour to think about."

Mort'ang nodded again and readied to speak, before getting interrupted by a Shanghalli pilot.  
"Lord Shipmaster! We have further-coming news of the humans."  
Ya'kai frowned, his eyes sharpening as he pondered the implications of such news, "Mort'ang, leave us – tell me what you have to report pilot."  
The small Shanghalli waited for Mort'ang to leave before starting, "Sire, we have reports of a second human ship in alliance with the 'Wary Warden."  
His mandibles drawn apart in a snarl, the shipmaster turned his back on the pilot, "When was it first sighted?"  
"Just then your highness."  
The Field Marshal turned around, tensing his muscles and clenching his talons together.  
"The humans have made a grave mistake."


	6. Chapter 6

Admiral Wisconsin watched over the two ships in his command via his cockpit on-board the "Wary Warden" UNSC class Frigate. He was a tough character, or so he liked to think to himself as he would spend almost an hour a day combing his inch moustache and inspecting himself in a mirror.  
But today he needed to be, the extra assistance of a second UNSC ship would most definitely start to aggravate the Shanghalli on-board their singular cruiser. Especially as this ship was a "Battle Cruiser" one of the highest and most powerfully classed UNSC space ships.

"Lieutenant Drafter? Glad to hear you could make it" He spoke into the radio coms, all regulation.  
"Understood Admiral, I have a platoon of Spartans ready for quick detachment and deployment on course with the covenant corvette." Drafter replied, ice in her voice.  
"Ease down Lieutenant," the Admiral panicked, "We don't have a hostile situation right now, and the Shanghalli have shown nothing but peaceful transactions."  
Drafter remained silent on the other side for at least a minute, leaving Wisconsin to sweat furiously as the silence settled in. If she made the wrong move, she could challenge the Priority 2 Agreement over a simple misunderstanding.  
"Affirmative, sending the Spartans to you; use them how you will." The Lieutenant replied with a taste of disappointment etched in her tone.

The Admiral started breathing again, "Alright ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have Spartans on board any minute, suit up and look presentable, and tell the science party to prepare for their drop off."  
"Ahead of schedule?" the pilot class operator replied.  
"They wanted escorts? We'll give them escorts in the vision of a platoon of Spartan IV's."  
**Meanwhile**  
The pelican thundered through the Mediterranean air leaving two streaks of smoke in its wake; below the small vehicle lay a massive tropical set of forests and jungles with sets of running rivers and high mountains. Almost looking like a holiday destination, Michael could barely see anything that would need their help here; especially seeing as the Shanghalli weren't even threats apparently.

The squad of Spartans sat tightly in the pelican, managing to somehow fit in the Lieutenant Drafter as well; she had insisted to come along and speak to Admiral Wisconsin in person.  
Ureal glared at Michael every few minutes; in order to remind him how unimpressed she was feeling; personally he didn't care, filling in her requirements was a waste of time in his opinion; she had already revealed her inability to lead properly.  
"Allright Spartans! We're making contact with the UNSC Frigate 'Wary Warden', remember ONI protocols and standardisations!" Ureal shouted out to them, readjusting her posture and battle composure as she yelled.

"Affirmative", Gabriel and Michael yelled back while checking their weaponry, while Raphael simply grunted his confirmation and Lucifer nodding from the back of the cockpit.  
The frigate zoomed in closer as the pelican readied to land, a landing pad extorted itself from the main UNSC ship and allowed the bird to land.  
"Welcome ambassadors from 'Red Dusk' I am AI construct 'Mayan', please watch your step." A soothing female voice spoke over all of their radio coms, allowing them into the ship.  
Raphael spoke roughly, "What are we 'ambassadors' now? Where are the targets already."  
"Quiet Spartans" Lieutenant Drafters spoke quickly, watching Ureal stare the heavy weapons specialist down in anger.

An impressive man walked up to the group in the hanger bay, flanked by two marines carrying assault rifles.  
"Lieutenant Drafter, it's nice to finally meet you; and of course you're Spartans." The Admiral spoke, regular diplomacy emphasising through his voice.  
"Good afternoon Wisconsin, I believe you have an objective for Kilo – Foxtrot 14?" The ONI operation replied smartly, enjoying the power she had over all of them.  
"Indeed I do, Walters; would you be so kind as to assist the Spartans to hanger bay 6 and issue them with the scientist team."  
"Yes sir!"


	7. Chapter 7

"Your assistance isn't needed Mort'ang, neither is your allegiance."  
The hanger-bay of the covenant corvette 'Reconciliation of lies' was releasing several banshee scouts and a phantom loaded with Shanghalli scientists and fighters.

Ta'ark stood by them clad in crimson zealot armour loaded with plasma grenades, a concussion rifle and an energy sword holster on his thigh. He was roaring orders to the lower class of elites, making sure they could get to the forerunner ship as soon as possible. Gesturing to the weaponry scales and ammo packs on the floor with his heavily muscled scaly arm and roaring out loud, mandibles spread wide.

Mort'ang observed this slow progression from the hanger doors, he had been willing to come but was said to be 'un-needed' due to his lack of ferocious appetite no doubt.  
With someone like Ta'ark in charge of this operation, it was bound to end in violence; something un-agreeable to the priority 2 agreement. Ya'kai had ordered a representative to be sent towards the forerunner site, not specifying who was a mistake that could cost many future lives.

The phantom started hovering in place, rushing the elites to board it quickly else they would be left behind. Mort'ang frowned in anger as he saw the other Zealot pushing elites around, with a creature like that in charge then obviously this wasn't to end well.

And so he acted, shouldering his weaponry and sprinting towards the hanger bays in desperation; before the phantom had time to disappear, Mort'ang managed to pilot a banshee and enter into it.  
The flier activated surprisingly quickly, hovering of the air and preparing to shoot through the sky- as soon as the royal zealot entered the vehicle it immediately took it off.

**Meanwhile  
**"Allright ladies, we're touching down on planet surface in less than 2 minutes, prep yourself for a rough landing." Ureal shouted into her mike, watching the four Spartans and scientists prepare themselves for any sort of ride. The pelican had descended from UNSC frigate "Wary Warden" almost five minutes ago. The sight of the Covenant Corvette was looming closer as the human vehicle dropped down to the target.

"So Ureal, does command want to tell us what we're doing yet?" Gabriel questioned quickly, reloading his sniper rifle and checking his armour cell pieces.  
"We're here to secure a high value target for the scientists and watch their backs, that's all you need to know." She replied back angrily, frustrated at her squad's questioning ability.

Raphael snorted again, looking down at the scientists with something close to disgust and noticing again that Lucifer was simply sitting back and watching the scene from afar.  
The lead scientist decided to speak up quickly, "We are here to investigate a forerunner wreckage crashed in on this planet's surfaces many millennia ago."  
Michael coughed in his visor at this, letting surprise get the better of him; the prospect of a forerunner discovery under supervision by mankind would be highly useful towards technological progression.

But of course, the Shanghalli should be there as well, this was intriguing for Michael; the Elites had barely been mentioned ever since their pelican drop of.  
"What about the elites? How are they involved in this?" Michael asked quickly, leaving no questions unanswered in his own mind or his team.

"The Shanghalli are involved in this archaeological dig as much as we are, due to the Priority 2 Agreement we need to be given 50/50 on all discoveries." The scientist replied shortly.  
"Then why haven't we heard anything about them yet? No communications? No reports?" Michael spat out without thinking.  
"Hey Spartan! Keep those questions to yourself soldier!" Ureal growled at him furiously.

The other Spartan nodded quickly, going back to reassuring his energy shields and rechecking his weaponry for any fight or tense confrontation ahead.  
"Allright members of the UNSC and ONI divisions were landing in hot on dead zone confirmation. Target ship is approx. 1 kilometre from destination." Ureal yelled at them all again, standing up and preparing herself for anything the world could throw at her. The other Spartans followed suit, making sure to reassure the scientists for the job to be done.  
Lucifer growled once, which in previous experiences foreshadowed an inevitable bad company.


	8. Chapter 8

"Keep your eyes peeled, and your hands on the triggers."  
The forestation went on for miles in every direction, only hindered by a distant high peak mountain which worked with a collection of mountains, making their location technically a ravine.

Flying birds could be seen soaring through the northern skies and soft calls all over the forestation undergrowth by the local native environment.  
A contrast to the typical overgrowth of trees reached the middle of their destination, a circle with the diameter of at least two miles with absolutely no vegetation inside it. That was the objective for the squad of Spartans and scientists.

Michael watched over the natural landscape with his squad, the pelican had just dropped them of at least one kilometre from the objective. High shrilled squeaks emitted from the undergrowth as native animals were disturbed suddenly.  
"All right Spartans move forward and keep an eye on the scientists." Ureal commanded swiftly, moving forward heavily with her Spartan armour bouncing over her shoulders.

"Do we have any confirmation on native life forms?" Gabriel requested, intrigued by the sounds coming from the forest's undergrowth. He crouched down by a low laid fern leaf, rammed his sniper rifle onto his back and touched the vegetation, trying to feel the texture through his tough encased glove.  
"Not yet", she replied as she restocked her DMR.  
Raphael snorted, "Anything comes at you with a vicious attitude you make sure to put a bullet through its skull."  
This got a chuckle out of Lucifer, an act that could commemorate any Spartan on his/her good humour.  
Gabriel and Michael glanced to each other as the entire squad entered the vegetation undergrowth, keeping constant visual contact with each other and the small scientists who were hurrying to keep up. The humid heat seemed to affect the unarmoured civilians, it made Michael uncomfortable but he could handle it for now.

The buzzing of insects flew past the squad; the entire atmosphere was reeking with them; which was something that annoyed Raphael very much.  
"Keep moving, objective is dead ahead" the Commanding Spartan spoke, letting her voice sound like reason to the scientists. The forestation was starting to clear up, leading them to the 'dead zone' of their destination.

Suddenly a purple vehicle flew over the entire squad from above the overgrowth, a Banshee flier scout.  
"Wow, wow" Michael panicked, grabbing his battle rifle and reloading swiftly, looking through the sights and preparing to fire.  
"Calm down rookie, it's probably just a Shanghalli scout; remember they're the good guys now?" Gabriel remarked, enjoying the private's mistake.  
The green Spartan sighed and sheathed his battle rifle, he remembered when all covenant were the enemy but now things were a lot more complicated. He noticed the scientists looked extremely uncomfortable with the appearance of the covenant scout.

A flock of small green skinned native animals ran away from the sound, their hind legs kicking up dirt as they galloped to a safe location. Loud squeals filled the air as the family of herbivores fled the scene.

The vegetation finally cleared, leaving the charred broken soil left, a massive crater beheld the entire squad in the middle of the destroyed circle. Nothing was growing inside it, leaving a black mark on the heavily green ochre of a planet.

In the middle of the 'dead zone' remained the crashed destruction of broken ship parts, the forerunner crashed shuttle.  
"Objective reached, call in command and let the scientists do their thing." Ureal exclaimed, lowering her DMR and allowing the civilians to advance with their equipment and human intentions.

More banshee fliers swopped overhead, leaving streaks in the sky as the oversaw the Spartans reaching the forerunner crashed shuttle.  
"Man those things give me the urge to kill something" Raphael observed as he reloaded his UNSC class shotgun.

Lucifer looked down and touched the foul soil, letting it scrape over his gauntlet.  
"Something has caused this land to never recover from the crash" he remarked, his voice deep and mellow in contrast to the other Spartans.  
'Enough talk, we've got scientists to look after – let's get this done and dusted before sundown."


	9. Chapter 9 : 1st Confrontation

"So have you guys given this place a name yet?" Michael spoke  
bluntly, uninterested with the situation he had found himself in.

The scientists didn't reply, to intent on studying the outside wings of the crashed ship, they had remained silent for the past five minutes and were simply cataloguing symbols and signs written in the metal.

The entire ship had been destroyed in the crash many years ago, leaving three sections of it still physically impacted. All three metal pieces were heavily adorned with technological prowess and symbols, and were at least five metres long each.  
They all jutted out of the soft soil like pyramids, proposing the idea that maybe more of the ship lay underneath.

Gabriel and Ureal were overlooking the scientists, while Lucifer and Raphael looked over them and noted the covenant banshee's soaring over the ship every now and then.  
"Do we know what type of ship it is yet?" Michael asked, again trying to relay a conversation between the silent soldiers and civilians.  
"No idea", the lead scientist replied.  
"Kilo – Foxtrot 14, this is UNSC Frigate 'Wary Warden'; acknowledge contact and go for secure." His radio com buzzed loud enough to make the scientists flinch.

Ureal stood up quickly, tapping the side of her helmet with a finger, "This is Kilo – Foxtrot 14, I have you."  
"Spartans, you have a Covenant Phantom headed your way ahead of schedule, understood?", Admiral Wisconsin spoke quickly, as if he was nervous over this transaction.  
The commander acknowledged her confirmation, "Orders on parlay sir?"  
"Just keep the scientist's safe; remember the Priority 2 Agreement as well as the ONI code of conduct with all communications.""  
The phantom cruised down, its massive purple hull descending from the atmosphere into the 'dead zone'. The lead scientist stood forward, a hearty man named 'Jake Smith' and flinched as the phantom drew forward.

"Spartans, you can't let the Elite's hinder our experimental progress." Dr Smith spoke quickly, rubbing the back of his neck.  
"Am I the only one remembering that we have a truce with the Shanghalli?" Gabriel pondered sarcastically to the other Spartans, noticing that Michael looked as troubled as he did.  
"Can it Spartan! Doctor Smith you have my personal promise that all of you are safe under my protection." Ureal shouted at Gabriel, before resorting back to a normal tone for the scientists.

The phantom reached the soli black soil, dropping of elites as it descended almost completely; Shanghalli minors dropped onto the ground led by a massive Red Zealot. They were all clad in heavy ornate armour that covered their heads, chest, shoulders and legs.  
The wrist up to the elbow was left unprotected but by simple mesh covering the skin, as was the knee down to the ankle and the neck.

Most of the minors were carrying simple plasma rifles and needler's; some had gained access to covenant carbines and needle rifles; all were clad in simple light blue elite armour.

The zealot at the head carried a concussion rifle in his massive talons, the heavy red armour protecting a lot more of his body in contrast to the minors.  
Roars filled the air as the Shanghalli proceeded to walk right up to the squad with no pause or hesitation. The Spartans pulled out their weaponry, ready for anything.  
The elites paused at least five metres away from the scientists, all of them twice the size of the civilians and three times as formidable. Their mandibles were drawn back aggressively and their weaponry pointed forward.

"The mighty human race demands a peace treaty with us, and they bring along Demons!?" The red Zealot grumbled in pure anger, allowing the other elites roar alongside him.  
Ureal stepped forward, letting her armour appear formidable to the elites; though realistically she knew that her squad would have a hard time if this turned into a fire-fight.

"My name is Ureal of the Spartan squad 'Kilo – Foxtrot 14 from the Office of Naval Intelligence with allegiance with the UNSC forces, under my command are the Spartans; Raphael, Gabriel, Lucifer and Michael." She spoke hurriedly, as if she had read this whole conversation from a manual.  
The elites didn't react to her words or speech; they simply stared down the scientists in something close to anger.

Then finally the Zealot spoke.  
"You speak plainly Demon, how simple is this to you? Do you not know of the betrayal you have committed to our species agreement?" He thundered, spittle exiting his mandibles.  
"In accordance with the Priority 2 Agreement between the Shanghalli and race of mankind…"  
"ENOUGH TALK!" He thundered back, grabbing a small white handle from his thigh and readying his thumb to activate it, "You have violated our agreement with lies and speeches, and I personally; Ta'ark of the Holy order of Zealotry, will not see this fore-pass!"

And without a pause, the elite activated the handle; sending a twin set of plasma into a symmetrical curve that ended into an energy sword.


	10. Chapter 10

Ya'kai watched over his corvette's control panels, correcting their course correction if need be. The Forerunner ship was to be guarded and looked after, and for that to be possible; he required his entire force to be watching over it, including his Covenant Corvette "Reconciliation of Lies."

After hearing that Ta'ark had decided to be first contact with the human party, the Field Marshall knew he had to guarantee problems would not start between the two races. The Priority 2 Agreement had to be followed, and the Red Zealot volunteering himself without Ya'kai's permission had the potential of restarting the entire events of the last thousand years.

"Gather communications with the two human ships." Ya'kai requested from his piloting operations Shanghalli, "It's time to sort out this mess."

His corvette started moving forwards, towards the Forerunner crashed craft as soon as the communication relay activated itself with the human ship "Wary Warden."  
Standing upright and reassuring his battle armour, the Shipmaster flicked the communications online and readied himself for the human audience.  
After a flick of the screen, Ya'kai could see two human officials standing on the main deck of their frigate, one male and one female.  
"Greetings Admiral" the Shipmaster spoke, attempting to speak the human language with efficiency; pronouncing 'm' was extremely hard for a creature that didn't have a lower jaw.

Wisconsin did not answer, instead the female decided to take the lead.  
"Shipmaster Ya'kai, you do realise that on Article 12 of the Priority 2 Agreement both of our races agreed to share forerunner technology in discovery and use?" She spoke, disproval and anger in her voice.  
The Shanghalli leader growled, swallowing his pride he simply nodded.  
"Then I demand you pull back your elites right now, their presence is violating the peace treaties we have fore come between our races." The human female said again, almost yelling at him.

"My expedition of elites at the site is no attack on the official treaty youngling" Ya'kai grumbled at her, irritated by her smug attitude, "However, you demanding to have a private audience with the site, as well as having double our number…"  
"Shipmaster!" the ONI Lieutenant interrupted, "Are you accusing us of breaking the treaty?"  
The Field marshal pondered that, technically they had been; but to accuse the humans of neglecting their agreement could lead to disastrous consequences. Eventually he decided to shake his head.

The young human operator smiled, "Good, do not bring this matter up with us again. Make sure that your elites are pulled back as soon as possible."  
Ya'kai nodded again, angry towards the human but not prepared to go against their will; he knew that in order for peace to reign, acceptance of each other's decisions was crucial. After the communications had cancelled, rage settled over the Shipmaster; the humans had spoken to him almost as if he were a child, even though he was an elder compared to them.

"Bring the ship around to the far side of the site and keep constant visual," He grumbled to his pilots in a tough tone. After walking out of the room, the Field Marshal immediately used his helmet communications to relay with Mort'ang.  
It was essential that he stopped Ta'ark from starting a war.

**Meanwhile  
**"Elite! Lower that sword, we don't want any fighting here" Ureal shouted in a panicked tone, flustered by this new turn of events.  
Raphael cocked his shotgun at the Zealot, ready for a fight with all of the elites present.  
Ta'ark roared at them all, advancing to Ureal with his energy sword held high, "Step down Demon! You demand to be alone with the site, you lie to us about the amount of ships you are bringing!?"  
Gabriel stared at the whole situation questionably, unsure whether to lower or raise his sniper rifle in this situation. The scientists looked nervous in the situation, aware of how close they could be to death.  
Ureal stuttered for words, unsure on how to act in such a situation; they didn't have these sorts of scenarios in ONI manuals.

Raphael knew exactly how to react, walking forward with his shotgun aimed at the group of elites and a steady finger on the trigger, however before he could get far Lucifer stood in his way; stopping the red Spartan to do anything drastic.  
"Pathetic humans, it isn't a mystery why your incompetent race couldn't survive the might of the covenant…tell me this Ureal." Ta'ark roared in her face, "Do you fight with honour!?"

A stream of light blinded the entire group as a purple banshee rammed into the ground quickly from above, another Shanghalli jumped out. The red zealot roared at the newcomer but stepped back from the group of Spartans, allowing the Elite to walk forward in-between both groups.  
It was a Golden Zealot.  
Mort'ang.


	11. Chapter 11

"Are you to incompetent to respect the Priority 2 agreements!?" Mort'ang roared at the Red Zealot, furious with his behaviour and lack of rationality, "Do you not see the blood to be shed if you continue this path?"  
Ta'ark screamed at him, frustrated with how the events had played out, "You speak of respect as if both Shanghalli and mankind reveal it, what respect have they shown us!?" the elite stepped forward, his sword drawn.

"Holy sh**", Gabriel swore at the events, unclear on how they had all come to this stand-off between the races and the agreement.  
"Yeah Ureal, maybe we should back down." Michael spoke slowly, eyeing the covenant energy swords that had been drawn between the two Zealots.  
"No no no, we have our orders and we will abide." She yelled back at him, trying to regain her former authority and courage.

The zealots stood face to face, Mort'ang defending the humans and Ta'ark standing in front of the Shanghalli minors; both forces looking formidable.  
"Defending human scum? Heresy reeks in you Mort'ang!" The Red Zealot growled at him, pacing backwards and forwards.  
"Defending the humans as well as our agreement shows honour, not heresy." The Golden Zealot replied evenly; hefting his sword in a better grip by his muscled talons and forearms.

The elite minors started grunting to each other, confused by the turn of events and whether or not they would fire upon the humans or Ta'ark. The golden zealot noticed this, and decided to play upon it.  
"Shanghalli of Shanghallios, you have yourself a brutish warrior that is hell-bent on breaking our agreement with the humans, grab his heretic and take him back to the 'Reconciliation of Lies' before blood is taken." Mort'ang spoke impressively, allowing his bulk frame carry the message across to all of the minors.

A pause issued throughout the entire group, both sides unclear on how to act.  
Then suddenly, Ta'ark swore in an ancient Shanghalli language and lunged forward with his sword hand; ready to skewer the Golden Zealot with one heavy and violent strike. Mort'ang did not move, allowing his brother's actions become his own downfall.  
And they did, before the crimson warrior had a chance to draw blood; the minors had yanked him back and thrown him to the ground. Quickly subduing him with superior numbers, the elites grabbed Ta'ark and started carrying him back to their phantom. His roars and protests could be heard all the way from the vehicle, which was parked at least 500 metres away.

Mort'ang watched this undergo from his position in front of the humans, making sure that the foolish Shanghalli hadn't done anything violent to escape; and then turned around to face the humans.  
"Greetings Spartans, I apologise over my brother's actions and words; they shall not befoul your ears again." He spoke heavily, his voice fluently rolling over the English language.  
Ureal stepped forward, "It better not, that mad creature was about to shove a sword through me! If it weren't for my trust in the priority 2 agreement; I would have killed him on sight."  
The Elite's mandibles drew back, he could see how Ta'ark was aggravated so easily; these humans were arrogant, "Be that as it may, I request to speak to your commanders as soon as possible; the peace between our races must be reinforced with peaceful negotiations."  
She grabbed a radio transmitter from her side pocket and gestured to it, "Here…you can talk through it." Her voice was slow, as if she was talking to a youngling.

Mort'ang stepped forward, sheathing his energy sword as he did so.  
"I mean to speak to your commanders in person; I believe you have a Pelican docked nearby?"  
Ureal stepped back, stunned by the elite's request, "Yes we do but we can't take you up, our orders specifically confirm we are to stay in our current location and guard the scientists."  
The Golden Elite looked over the civilians slowly, who were still shivering at his appearance. Then he stepped forward, "Very well, I will go alone; I hope luck befalls you with your research."  
'What! You can't go alone…" Ureal started.  
"I'll go with him" Michael said, eager to pitch himself in.  
"And I" Gabriel followed suite, letting Lucifer nod with him.

Ureal looked over her squad, ready to argue with them about how stupid they were acting; but she honestly didn't care anymore. If they wanted to go with the murderous elite then it was their funeral, at least she could follow her orders and stay alive with Raphael.  
"Very well, me and Raphael will look over the crashed shuttle and the scientists, you three escort the Elite…"  
"My name is Mort'ang"  
"…alright, you can escort him to the pelican and up to 'wary warden', keep in constant radio communications, got it?" She replied harshly, her eyes watching over them.  
"Yes sir!" Michael replied, Gabriel followed suite while Lucifer simply nodded.


	12. Chapter 12

Beady yellow eyes gazed through the forestation's undergrowth, watching the small squad of Spartans and Elite enter the overgrowth. The native herbivore's observed over the intruders for any dangerous movement. Loud voices interrupted their observation, causing the small animals to flee in terror.  
Michael looked to his left as the small flock of four legged herbivore's galloped away from them into the forest undergrowth. They had startled him, again.

"Calm yourself human, the Yer'klgo will not trouble you; they are a peaceful race that enjoys solitude over violence, let your fear pass like the seasons" The Royal zealot spoke softly, noticing the green Spartan's discomfort.  
The Spartan nodded, letting peace govern his mind; which was difficult due to the past hour's events that featured violence and near disaster.

"So, Mort'ang; you mind telling us what the hell is going on?" Gabriel asked bluntly, carefully walking over the undergrowth ferns.  
The zealot waited a moment, listening to the forest's natural whisper before replying, "The agreement between our races is hindering upon collapse."

Michael almost coughed out-loud at this news.  
"Lack of respect on both sides has brought upon an age of fear between our races, we aren't united under a common survival instinct anymore – we are simply fearful of the years of war to come, the carnage we could and would do to your race." Mort'ang continued, calm in his face but anger in his voice.  
"What do you think?" Michael requested slowly.

The Shanghalli paused then spoke, "What our alliance lacks is trust, in order to prosper and live in progress we must simply respect our allies and having senior figures governing our own will and words is a challenge to our own mentality and strength."  
Lucifer was listening intently, making no comment as the Spartans asked questions from the logical and wise Shanghalli.

"After the great incursion between two significant members of both our races, it was believed that Human and Shanghalli could share this universe in a peaceful and beneficial manner."  
Gabriel stopped him, "Wait, are you talking about the Master Chief and Arbiter?"  
"None other, what the Spartan and the Arbiter had in common was a simple amount of respect; they accepted and treated each other in unified friendship. This is something that apparently could never be seen again."

"Because of Storm?" Michael asked quietly.

Mort'ang stopped in his massive steps, turned around and looked confused, "I wasn't aware that humans knew that title."  
"We don't" Gabriel said, confused in what Storm could mean.  
Michael continued, "Storm is the rouge faction of covenant that controlled the shield world Requiem after the great Schism."  
"Well well, I'm impressed, you must have been present on board the human vessel 'Infinity'." The Royal zealot spoke slowly.  
The green Spartan nodded, allowing the other Spartans to stare at him in wonder.  
They all entered the pelican together, seating themselves around the Shanghalli in order to ask him more questions.

The pilot looked confused, "Where's the rest of your party, and why the hell is there an elite on my bird!"  
Michael replied for them, "They stayed back, and don't talk about him that way, his name is Mort'ang, nothing else", anger coursed through his words as he defended the Elite; Gabriel nodded his approval from the side.  
The pilot paused and decided to say nothing, instead completely focused on flying his pelican accurately.

The Royal zealot watched over the Spartans, pleased with their company and having them as allies in the universe. His mandibles drew forward, the closest an elite could get to a smile.  
"Thank you Friend, I will make sure to repay the favour to you one day."  
Michael gleamed over his new title of Friend; it was the greatest compliment he had ever received. He had been referred to as 'Spartan', 'demon', '701', 'rookie' and 'failure' his whole life; somehow talking to this elite helped him feel more human than any conversation in the whole universe.


	13. Chapter 13

"Reporting in Pelican Echo 1, release codes issued as 'Red Dog': respond and go for secure?" The pilot spoke slowly through his helmet com.  
"Affirmative, you're cleared in for landing; welcoming party is ready for your special guest", and operative of the UNSC frigate 'wary warden' responded.  
Michael listened in to the radio chatter, ever wary of the trouble that could be caused if the negotiations between Mort'ang and Admiral Wisconsin went to hell. This was important to all of them, as well as the history of mankind and Shanghalli – he personally had to make sure that nobody screwed it up.  
The pelican entered through the hanger bay doors of the "wary warden" and descended down, letting the Spartans and Elite gather themselves and prepare to board the Frigate. Lucifer stood behind them all, Gabriel and Michael at the front with the Zealot in the middle; a lot of negative attention would be brought if the Shanghalli went out first.

Blinding light reeked through the doorway as the hanger came into view, letting the small squad of misfits step out...and be met by almost 50 marines holding automatic weapons and positioned around the pelican almost violently.  
"Wow! Wow!" Gabriel roared at them, "Lay down your weapons!"  
"Sir, I recommend you step away from the elite" A marine spoke slowly, the leader of them all.  
Mort'ang growled at the marines, slowly reaching for his energy sword as they aimed their assault rifles at him.  
"He's with us marines! If you wanna shoot us all down then go ahead" Michael yelled at them, furious at this pre-judgement over the Shanghalli.  
They hesitated, unsure on how to act.

"Move aside! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" A rough voice ripped through the strong veil of marines. Admiral Wisconsin walked through their ranks, furiously staring down the soldiers as he met up with the squad of misfits.  
"Sorry sir, Lieutenant Drafter's orders are to confiscate any covenant weaponry and escort the Elite to a holding pen large enough." The head marine spoke, lowering his assault rifle.  
"And since when did you take direct orders from her? I am the commander of this ship and your battalion! Get back to the armoury before I have you court marshalled!" The Admiral shouted into the marine's face.  
Mort'ang snarled from behind the Spartans, though in an amused sort of way, "This one has fire, make sure not to push him or his frame may snap."

Admiral Wisconsin asserted over the squad, "My apologies for the welcoming committee Spartans, you have a member of the Shanghalli official board for me?"  
"Affirmative sir, he requested to speak to you in private." Gabriel spoke swiftly, pushing himself out of the way so Mort'ang could step forward.  
"I take it you're the ambassador I've been waiting for?" Wisconsin spoke evenly, eyeing the Shanghalli's energy sword handle and worn battle armour.  
"Mort'ang Ra'zhim of the Royal Zealotry at your service, I represent Ya'kai of the 'Reconciliation of Lies" The Golden Zealot spoke slowly, letting his mandibles operate around the difficult letters of the English language.  
Suddenly another formation of marines walked through into the hanger, leading in an ONI operator by the name of 'Lieutenant Drafter'.  
"What is the meaning of this Admiral, any conversations with the Shanghalli should go through my personal recommendations" She spoke hurriedly, angered by the total set of events.  
Michael almost swore at her appearance, she was going to ruin everything.

The Admiral Wisconsin looked awkward, unsure whether to follow the ONI directives or to do what Mort'ang personally recommended.  
"Well?!" Drafters yelled at him.  
The Golden Zealot growled at her appearance, he felt like grabbing his energy sword and ramming it through the ONI operator; things would be so much easier that way.  
"I am to here to speak to the Zealot of 'Reconciliation of Lies over the Priority 2 Agreement, and no one else." The Admiral rumbled, slowly starting to step forward; the Elite grumbled his agreement letting Lieutenant Drafter step backwards, unsure over her safety in this situation.  
"This is a private communications agreement ma'am" Michael spoke, slowly escorting her out of the room with his squad mates and the marines.

The door slammed behind them, leaving the Shanghalli and the human in the closed room and discussion.  
"What do you think their talking about in their?" Michael asked, thoughtfully to the other Spartans and to the ONI operative.  
"Shut it!" Drafter screamed at him, insanely furious with how events had played out, "What do you think you're doing? Bringing that elite onto the ship and then backing it up?! It could be assassinating Wisconsin right now thanks to you!"

"Ma'am, your acting paranoid about this; we have a truce with the Shanghalli remember?" Gabriel spoke quietly, trying to calm the operative down.

She paused for a moment, and then smiled, "As soon as we hit a settlement controlled by mankind, I am rest assured; going to excommunicate your entire squad for gross misconduct and misguided actions!" a feral tint hit her eyes as she looked at them all.

"Oh mark my words Spartans, you will be court marshalled for this." She added, watching with satisfaction as their postures dropped in depression over her words.

Gabriel looked to Michael in horror, he hadn't realised how openly he had spoken to such a highly ranked individual.  
"I thought soldiers of your calibre could live up to the legend, but you show more resemblance to the monster you just protected." She sighed.

Michael lost all control at her calling Mort'ang a monster, "I would prefer being like the elites then anything like you Lieutenant Drafter" and without another word he turned around and walked away from her, Gabriel followed him.  
Drafter screamed at them, her voice on the edge of hysteria, "How dare you turn your back to me Spartans!", she swiftly grabbed her sidearm from a thigh holster; lifting the UNSC magnum into the air and adjusting to aim it into the back of Michael's skull.

BAM – Lucifer tackled her from behind, not injuring her, but enough to make her fall to the floor and become completely restrained. The Spartans watched in complete wonder and horror at the same time, they had never seen anyone lay a hand on Drafter before.

"I'll have you killed for this!" She swore at them, trying to bite the Spartan's tough gloves.  
Lucifer stopped for a moment, looking down at the desperate operator; the women who had acted like a mother to them for their entire service and lives in the ONI force.

"No you won't." he said, punching her straight in the face and knocking her out cold.


	14. Chapter 14 : 2nd Confrontation

"Jesus Christ Lucifer!" Gabriel swore at him, terrified at how these events had worked out, "That was Drafter! Our handler!"  
"We don't need a handler Gabriel, were not lost dogs." Lucifer replied evenly, his voice very mellow and powerful compared to everyone else's.  
Michael looked over the ONI operative's body, confirming she was at least alive; the violence against such an official was indeed a terrible act, but it was technically a provoked assault. She did level her gun at them before Lucifer knocked her out.

"All-right listen you guys, we have to talk to the Admiral before she wakes up; he's the only one with political power over ONI right now." The green Spartan spoke, trying to resort to logic in a time of madness. He had to take charge, he may be the youngest and most inexperienced Spartan their; but someone had to do something.  
"He's probably still talking to Mort'ang, I'm not sure if he'll take us." Gabriel replied, despite what he said; the blue Spartan led the way back to the main hanger bay's cockpit.  
"He'll have to" Michael replied, almost sprinting down to the doorways.

Suddenly an ear splintering screech interrupted all of their thoughts; an eruptive noise came from their radio coms inside their Mjolnir helmets. A voice broke through the radio signals, a single message in a vile and harsh language that the Spartans couldn't understand.  
Michael felt to his knees, the noise hurting him so badly that he was forced to rip his helmet of and throw it to the ground; Gabriel was screaming as the sound intensified and Lucifer started punching the wall in complete agony. Finally the noise ended as quickly and abruptly as it had begun.

"What the f*** was that!?" Gabriel swore, his voice cracking.  
Before Michael could answer, another radio signal came through; this one a friendly com relay from Ureal, "Spartans did you catch that?"  
They acknowledged their confirmation, all deciding not to mention that Lucifer had knocked out their ONI handler a while ago.  
"Keep an eye open for anything soldiers, I think all UNSC forces in the vicinity caught wind of that message; whatever it was."

"Affirmative Ureal" Gabriel agreed, still recovering from the brutal beating his ears had just experienced.  
Suddenly the doors of the hanger-bay cockpit opened, showing them the sight of Admiral Wisconsin and Mort'ang standing side by side both looking confused and angry.  
"Spartans! What the hell was that!?" the Admiral roared.  
"No idea sir" The Blue Spartan replied quickly, speaking for the group.  
A piloting operator ran up to them, "Sir! We have visual on a slip-space rupture near the corvette 'Reconciliation of Lies."

"Open up communications with Ya'kai as soon as possible" He spoke, walking to the main cockpit of the entire frigate; the Spartans and Elite following him.  
After reaching the main bay, the Admiral turned around and requested an instant sitrep on the situation from his pilots.

"Sir, the slip-space rupture is passing; it looks like...oh god."  
A covenant ship blew into the planet's atmosphere, leaving a massive concussion wave in its wake as it descended right down next to the original Corvette "Reconciliation of Lies".

"Sir we have confirmation on a second covenant ship! This one of a much larger and formidable scale, allegiances and signs are unregistered and unknown." The operators screamed out-loud.  
"Holy hell" Michael spoke out loud in awe, things were progressing quickly; a little too quickly for him to keep up or feel comfortable with.  
"Where the hell are those communications with the Reconciliation of Lies!?" The Admiral almost swore out-loud, these turn of events had really shaken him.

"The field marshal must have rejected them sir, the signal isn't even transferring possibly." An operative answered back quickly.  
Michael looked back to the Spartans as Wisconsin continued rambling, he needed to make sure they wouldn't be turn inside out by Drafter when she woke up; and he was unsure whether he feared the new covenant ship or her more.

"Gabriel, Lucifer! Call in Spartans!" His radio buzzed, Raphael was on the other side; this was typical of the big guy, he barely spoke to authorities, instead choosing to radio his squad mates.  
"It's Michael, what's happening down there with the scientists Raphael?"  
The red Spartan paused on the other side, but sound kept transmitting; the sound of plasma firing across a battle ground and humans screaming out in pain. Michael stopped for a moment, unclear on what he was listening to until a loud scream almost deafened him.  
"Admiral!" He yelled, interrupting the entire communications, "The scientist team are under attack down by the forerunner wreck!"

Before the Admiral could respond, Raphael shouted throughout the communications relay,  
"Michael! Get your ass down here! We have covenant contacts slaughtering us here! Need immediate reinforcements!" The sound of plasma hitting energy shields and human flesh resounded throughout the entire cockpit.  
"Ureal is down, I repeat Ureal is down! Supposedly KIA, I can't tell"


	15. Chapter 15 : The Harbinger

**A few minutes earlier**  
"Shipmaster, we have direct communications with the Supreme Cruiser" The piloting operator announced to the Shanghalli cockpit of the corvette "Reconciliation of Lies".  
Ya'kai looked over his underlings, almost enraged by the violent turn of events that had corrupted his mind and crew. First Ta'ark had almost destroyed the Priority 2 agreement, than the massive covenant ship had appeared next to his own ship. So far the ship hadn't transmitted any messages or signals that could identify it.

"The human admiral is also requesting your…" the operator continued, his mandibles strained as the stress started to get to the Shanghalli.  
"Silence!" the Field Marshal roared, "I will speak to the humans later, open up communications with the Supreme Cruiser at once!"  
Black filled the main projector screen ominously, until finally the cockpit of another covenant ship filled the entire screen.

Blue Shanghalli warriors stood on the deck with assortments of weaponry and salvaged armour, they carried large Storm rifles in their tough grips and unprotected forearms.  
The Kig'yar squawked in the corner of the screen ship, holding large energy barrier shields and small plasma pistols and needlers; they watched over the Grunts who made up the main bulk of the Supreme Carrier's forces. All together, the different races resembled the covenant faction of "Storm" with their salvaged armoury and rough weaponry textures.  
A small covenant Elite Zealot stood in the secondary seat of the Carrier's cockpit; the purple armour barely protecting the Shanghalli.  
"I am Ya'kai of the Corvette 'Reconciliation of Lies', identify your Shipmaster and lead me to him" The Field Marshal spoke, angry to be met by a mere Zealot.

Every single covenant species on the cockpit answered quickly, "We are the Storm, to wash away your righteous sin and wreck the blasphemous lives of humanity" The voices shocked Ya'kai, every soldier on that Supreme Carrier had been taught those specific words to relay like some form of motto.

The Field Marshall roared at them, angered by the appearance of such a hated faction, "Prepare to fire upon the enemy cruiser!" the operating pilots looked to each other in confusion, but continued to follow their master's ruling.

"Shipmaster! The carrier has been identified as the 'Infamous Fury', the notorious Storm Battle cruiser that led the invasion of 'Trident."  
Ya'kai swore out-loud in an ancient Shanghalli tongue, furious with the arrival of the enemy on such a short notice. Storm was the loyalist faction of the covenant, still holding true to the ancient ways; this small formation of collected species could spark another war between humanity.

**Meanwhile**  
Ureal tapped at her radio headset again and again, angered that she could not communicate with the other team of Spartans. Another Covenant ship had appeared right over the forerunner wreck and immediately disrupted the radio signals of every UNSC communications.  
"Raphael! Keep trying with the signal" She yelled at her partner, the Mjonlir helmet amplifying her voice loud enough for the scientists to cringe. She quickly activated her energy shields, making sure that whatever happened next; she was ready for it.

Suddenly a purple missile descended down from the new Covenant supreme carrier, halting 10 metres from the ground. One of the scientists fell backwards in fear as the drop pod started unloading covenant soldiers onto the ground.

Two Shanghalli warriors dropped to the ground, holding storm rifles in both arms with a tight grip and a sturdy expression. The armour that encased them was salvaged pieces of metal and simple mesh, representing the entire attacking force as "Storm" soldiers.  
Jackals dropped from the drop pod quickly, screaming shrilly as they activated their barrier shields via a gauntlet on their left wrist. They sprinted towards the squad quickly, crossing the black soil quicker than an UNSC warthog.  
"Incoming covies!" Ureal shouted, unclear whether the newcomers were friendlies or hostile as they hadn't opened fire.  
Another drop-pod landed deep into the ground, off-loading a small squad of grunts with heavy methane tanks and light weaponry.

At the head of the entire formation stood a massive Shanghalli official, as tall as a Hunter and as broad as a Jiralhanae; the nemesis stood proud and powerful in front of the small squad of Spartans and civilians.  
"Identify yourself Elite!" Ureal shouted at him, attempting to threaten the huge creature into submission.  
The official looked down at her, his armour was almost identical to the garments of the ancient 'Arbiters'; except it had been specifically coated in black shades. A large silver handle rested upon the elite's back, almost as long as the handle of a Gravity Hammer.

"I am the bane of man" He spoke, his mandibles curving in and out with the white teeth flaring towards her. The voice was old, wise and powerful; its presence made Ureal want to hide in fear of persecution and destruction.  
Stepping forwards, the nemesis grabbed the long handle from his back and held it in one massive taloned arm; the bulging muscles in his forearm visible through his armour.

"I am hand of Storm" He roared, as the Spartan's opened fire upon his black energy shields; watching as the bullets simply bounced of his barriers without even denting his armour. He activated a trigger on his handle quickly, letting three sets of plasma erupt out the weapon in a symmetrical arc resembling half a moon. The creature held the energy reaper in both arms, stepping right up to the Spartan IV female; her face was positioned at his lower chest.

"I am the Harbinger" He slowly drawled, slashing the foolish Spartan across the torso with his energy reaper; letting blood erupt over the wound and fall to the black soil. Ureal gasped once, and then fell backwards, her entire upper body falling clear of the lower half.  
She had been ripped completely in half, her Mjonlir armour doing nothing to save her from the energy reaper and the Harbinger.


	16. Chapter 16

"We have numerous casualties down here, need immediate reinforcements!" Raphael's voice shouted through the signal communications on board the UNSC Frigate 'Wary Warden.'  
The Admiral was shouting, panicked by the turn of events, "Can you confirm the hostiles!?"  
Shouting replied to him, Shanghalli roars and the screams of Kig-Yar over the blasts of weaponry and grenades destroying the backdrop.  
Wisconsin listened intently, then paused and turned around to his pilots and operators, 'I need visual down there as soon as possible, either scouts or drones I don't care! The protection of that site is as crucial as our Priority 2 agreement."  
"Yes sir!" They replied.

Michael stepped forward, eager to assist his teammates as soon as possible, "Sir, permission to assist Raphael and escort the scientists to safety!?" Gabriel and Lucifer nodded their allegiance to assist, although the blue Spartan looked spectacle.  
Mort'ang stood with them, prepared to assist in any way; this seemed to anger the Admiral greatly as he roared, "Proper marine reinforcements will be sent in due time, I require you three to escort this Shanghalli warrior to a holding pen until further orders abide you."  
"What!" They protested, Lucifer looking violent as ever.  
The Admiral nodded to two marines in the corner, gesturing for them to grab the Royal Zealot and secure him. They started walking to the Spartans; their assault rifles raised.

Gabriel stepped forward, activating his energy shields and raising his fists in an offensive position; the other two Spartans followed suite, preparing to knock the marines out if need be. Mort'ang glared at the Admiral, extending his mandibles in an aggressive stance.  
"Sir, our team-mates need us down there and we will assist them" Gabriel swore to him.  
Wisconsin roared, "With all due respect Spartans, if you do not restrain that Shanghalli and take him under the UNSC codes of conduct this very moment; I will have you court marshalled" |  
Michael stepped forward, with Mort'ang right beside him, "With all due respect sir, don't make us your enemy."  
The Spartans and Elite turned around, heading for the nearest pelican in the hanger bay and readying themselves for the battle ahead.  
"Guys, I don't think a pelican will get us there fast enough, but I think I know what will" Gabriel noticed slowly, looking towards the ODST detachment bay and thinking out-loud to himself.

**Meanwhile**  
"Ya'kai, the boarding craft is upon us!"  
The Shipmaster scratched his upper right mandible in nervous anticipation; the covenant faction of 'Storm' had requested a summit meeting on his own corvette. Refusal of such a request could paramount a conflict between them and Ya'kai cared for his crew, he wouldn't go up against a Supreme Carrier with nothing but a corvette.

"Your excellency, Ta'ark is requesting your personal audience" An Elite minor spoke to him, arming his plasma rifle in preparation for the boarding party.  
"I will speak to the heretic later brother, keep him in the detention pens" The Field Marshal replied shortly, activating the ships outer doors to open as soon as the Supreme Carrier's cargo would unload its parlay members.  
The doors sizzled, and then activated; opening themselves in a horizontal tangent that let the covenant members of 'Storm' slowly enter the room.

Grunts entered first, armed with simple plasma pistols and needlers; equipped with methane tank armour and little goggled masks. They were flanked by a heavy set of Shanghalli generals and officials, all armed to the teeth with Fuel Rod Cannon's, concussion rifles and Energy swords.  
These elites were a lot more heavily outfitted with armour and salvaged metal pieces then most 'Storm' Shanghalli, making them almost covered in bulky blue and gold encasement.  
A dual set of Hunters walked in the room, heavy and bulky armour covering the soft orange tubes that created their entire bodies. They guarded a small figure in the middle of the entire progression, a figure seated in a hovering throne.

One of the Storm Shanghalli spoke, his voice drawled; as he spoke the rest of the formation repeated what he said, as if it were a sermon, "The Prophet of Storm"

The small San 'Shyuum stared straight at Ya'kai, letting his presence affect every Shanghalli warrior and pilot that was in the room slowly.  
Ya'kai's Elites started to bow to the prophet of Storm, neglecting their allegiance to their Shipmaster and instead continuing their faith with the prophet.  
Storm smiled, his small head bobbing up and down, "Seize the Infidel"  
And without a seconds hesitation, Ya'kai's own forces, his own Shanghalli warriors; turned on him and grabbed the Shipmasters arms, restraining him and then quickly knocking him out.


	17. Chapter 17

"Grenade!" Raphael shouted, jumping to the side as the small blue detonation device blew through with a wave of plasma and energy sparks. The sparks passed through and hit the Spartan's energy shields and flickered the gold barriers to 45% capacity. Blue plasma swopped through the air and missed Raphael by inches, the superheated energy weapons were shown to be very dangerous against the energy shields of the Mjonlir suit.

The scientists cowed in fear as the Storm covenant advanced, the Shanghalli warriors firing their storm rifles into the midst of civilians and the one male Spartan. Ureal's corpse was quickly over ridden by vicious Jackals and Grunts; who immediately resumed firing their weaponry at the civilians.  
Green plasma bolts quickly swung past and cut into one of the civilians, they slowly eroded at the scientist's skin and into the body. He dropped quickly, his lower torso damaged badly by the small plasma burns. Raphael swore as he saw a scientist's entire chest blow in an eruption of needles, leaving a pink cloud in the place of a man.

The Spartan fired back furiously, shooting his shotgun at the Shanghalli repeatedly; and managing to drop one within three rounds.  
Before the elite minor fell, another drop pod swung through the air and smashed into the ground furiously; another set of Shanghalli warriors jumped out; led by a Golden Elite General clad in heavy covenant garments.  
"Holy hell this is a nightmare" Raphael roared as another scientist fell, blood oozing out of his neck as the carbine projectile imploded his brain cavities, "This is Spartan 680 calling in to 'Wary Warden', where the hell are my reinforcements!"  
An operator replied curtly, "Pelican is on approach, ETA 3 minutes."

Another drop-pod crashed into the ground, this one a lot closer to the squad itself; after a second's delay the cargo was unleashed unto the black soil that had been charred with plasma burns and blood.  
Two hunters thundered down onto the earth, both armoured and armed identically with dark purple armour, ornate triangular shields and green tinted fuel rod cannons infused in their right arms.  
They emitted a strange noise together, a soft growl that emanated from hundreds of organisms inside the entire structure. One of the heavy warriors started charging up his fuel rod cannon, the other started running up to the squad; both members operating like some form of teamwork.

The hunter ran up to Raphael, hefting its shield to smash the Spartan into the ground with one thrust; the other fired its fuel rod into the surviving civilians; cutting down their numbers to barely two survivors as the rest burned with radioactive fire and sparks.  
Raphael looked up into the small triangular face of the massive hunter; he fired his UNSC shotgun twice at the hunter's chest piece and watched as the rounds simply grazed the heavy thick armour.

"Click"  
His shotgun went dry, leaving the Spartan defenceless to the huge wormlike creature.  
Raphael jumped out of the way, letting the hunter smash its shield down straight into the black soil and leaving a dent in the ground.  
Suddenly a fast missile flung through the air, another drop pod; but this one was different, it was a set of four UNSC drop shuttles.  
They smashed into the ground, crushing the hunter into a soft orange paste with mechanical armour sticking out at the bottom of the shuttles. The second hunter groaned in a collection of anger's, enraged by the loss of his bond brother.

Before it could exact revenge, the drop-pod's opened quickly; revealing Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel and, although it was a tight squeeze, Mort'ang.  
"Open fire!" Gabriel shouted, his sniper rifle quickly eliminating the Storm Shanghalli general; the thick and powerful sniper rounds easily passing through the elite's heavy armour. The other storm soldiers roared at the newcomers, unsure whether to attack or flee this new force.  
Mort'ang roared at them, firing his needle rifle at the underling grunts first; aiming for headshots and easy kills in order to terrify the rest of the Unggoy into fleeing.  
The covenant started to fall back, terrified with the prospect of fighting one of their own as well as the Demons, rage filled the last hunter; letting it run forward but almost immediately fall to the floor, revealing Lucifer with a heavy knife behind it.  
Grunts screamed as they saw the last hunter fall, even the Shanghalli storm soldiers seemed to tremble as Lucifer turned around and faced them all; one black Spartan who had downed a hunter with a single blow.

The Black Spartan looked back at his squad mates and nodded to them, then stared intently at the Harbinger who had positioned himself behind the attacking forces.  
He ran forward, activating his stolen camouflage and preparing to kill every last covenant in a form of revenge over the death of Ureal.  
He ran intently, straight for the massive black elite who had called himself "Harbinger", letting his invisibility camouflage himself so could assassinate the monster himself.

The Harbinger stood alone, clad in black heavily ornate armour and wielding a long silver handle; the elite sniffed the air slowly, taking in the scent.  
Lucifer walked up to the monster slowly, grabbing his long knife and letting his camouflage directly avoid all visibility between himself and the Harbinger.  
"I smell your stench Prey" the Black clad elite roared.  
Suddenly, the elite spun around in a complete arc around himself; letting his energy reaper sweep around and slash the invisible Spartan across the visor, letting blood pour out of Lucifer's face as he fell to the floor, defeated.


	18. Chapter 18

Ta'ark stood alone in his empty and barren cell, his armour had been stripped away from him and so his honour. The zealot had been stripped of his authority and momentary service due to his actions back at the forerunner site; and as such, he had been confined to the detention cell's under constant watch and jurisdiction.

However something had happened in the past few minutes, the elite guards had left him alone in the cell in order to attend to something more important. Ta'ark didn't care; he was furious over Ya'kai's treatment of such a high rank of Zealot as well as Mort'ang's interruption and reasoning behind his apprehension.  
Suddenly, as the Zealot stopped pacing his small cell, Shanghalli warriors entered the detention halls outside of his cell. They were oddly armoured, with salvaged pieces of metal and garments instead of traditional over-coating; 'Storm soldiers' Ta'ark snarled.

They carried in another Shanghalli, a field marshal coated in purple armour; Ya'kai the shipmaster of the Reconciliation of Lies. They tugged on the unconscious elite and placed him in another detention cell, leaving him there.  
Ta'ark roared at them to notice him; however they failed to notice him.  
"That one may yet be useful to us" A voice drawled out to the Shanghalli, the prophet of Storm hovered forward in his gravitational throne and looked down at the honour lost zealot in something close to pity.  
"Who are you!?" Ta'ark roared to the prophet, although ever wary of the power the creature possessed.

Every member of the Storm faction inside the detention centre replied curtly, "We are the Storm, to wash away your righteous sin and wreck the blasphemous lives of humanity."  
The prophet nodded to all of them slowly before returning his gaze to the crimson zealot slowly as if he was calculating him, "You still have a side to choose Ta'ark, and before this war is over I must say you should choose the right one"  
Confusion filled the Zealot's thoughts as he struggled to remember how this prophet would know his name, but then remembering how his former master had betrayed him; he realised he didn't care anymore. All he cared for was the destruction of man and the protection of his race.  
"I will serve the Storm" Ta'ark knelt to the Prophet, swearing his allegiance to the leader.  
"Excellent" Storm replied cheerfully, "We have alot of work to do"

**Meanwhile  
**Blue plasma filled the Spartan's screen as the energy bolts flew over his face, not that he could see much anyway; the blood was weeping out of his eye and cheek freely all over his visor and out of the massive crack that had been left behind.  
The Harbinger had been driven off by his team-mates, or left by his own record; Lucifer couldn't even tell the difference anymore.  
Sounds of gunfire alerted his ears that UNSC soldiers must be nearby, but maybe he was only imagining things; after experiencing a cut to the face even he could fall prey to hallucinations.

A blue grunt to his left fell on top of his shoulder, luminous blood splattering the fallen Spartan IV and covering him in black soil.  
Suddenly a familiar figure broke into Lucifer's point of view, a Blue Spartan IV wielding a sniper rifle and firing it upon the ranks of the covenant. A pair of arms grabbed Lucifer's shoulders quickly from behind, pulling him backwards across the soil.

"Pull back!" A Spartan roared to his team-mates, probably Michael by the sound of his voice and tone.  
Lucifer felt the strange sensation of his back being pulled onto the bottom of a UNSC pelican, he positioned his head to see a squad of marines firing back at the covenant and helping him onto the vehicle. Raphael and Gabriel jumped onto the pelican as well, escorting the last two scientists into the safe vehicle.  
Within seconds the main backdoor of the pelican had sealed shut and the noises of the storm rifles and needlers had ceased.

A long and thin blue streak broke through the glass of the pelican window, hitting the lead scientist in the back of the head in an eruptive blast; the line continued through and cut into the second scientist's lower backbone's vertebrae before ending at the pelican battle frame.  
The second scientist fell to the floor in agony, her body crumbling in a heap; her voice gurgled as every limb in her body refused to move at her will.  
Michael crouched by the scientist, his heavy armour protecting the civilian as she took her final breaths as a living human.


	19. Chapter 19

"We need a medivac over here!" Michael yelled as soon as the pelican had landed back unto the Wary Warden again.  
Marines and medical personal rushed to grab the bleeding black Spartan IV and put him of an operating table in order to save him from the damage to his face. The other Spartans followed Lucifer to the Recovery ward; leaving Mort'ang to stay in the pelican hanger and not bring any more attention to himself.

After Michael was satisfied with the proper treatment of the black Spartan, he led the remains of Kilo – Foxtrot 14 to the main cockpit in order to talk to the Admiral Wisconsin over this matter.  
He noticed that marines were looking very cautionary over their arrival at the cockpit; they had fingers on the triggers and were ready for any form of trouble.  
"Spartans! You return to the Wary Warden in order to strike me down personally this time?" The admiral roared at them from his captain's seat.  
Michael started to talk, "Commander…

"Silence!" The Admiral roared to them, hysteria filling into his voice, "Lieutenant Drafter informed me of your insurrection on her authority and now I've realised the only way to have you under control is to have you permanently on guard and dog control!"

"Is she ok?" Michael requested slowly, genuinely caring for the ONI director in a friendly human compassionate way and term.  
"Lieutenant Drafter returned to the UNSC Battle Cruiser 'Red Dusk' as soon as she woke up from your unprovoked assault upon her" He smiled menacingly, looking cruel in comparison to the compassionated face of Michael, "And now I hear you have betrayed your own UNSC admiral and marines as well Spartans?"

"Sir?" Gabriel replied, "Our intentions were merely set on saving the civilians and our team-mate in combat"  
The Admiral waved him off, "And how did that go? You come back with that blasted elite, zero civilians and a dying Spartan?"  
Raphael stepped forward, "We lost our Spartan Commander down there, trying to save your scientists from the covenant"  
"Have you at least identified their allegiances?" Wisconsin replied curtly, allowing spittle to flow down his mouth.

"We are the Storm" a voice came from the main monitor's communications.  
They all turned around, to the sight of a prophet on their massive screen staring intently down upon them as if they were insects to his eyes; which they probably were.  
"Identify yourself covenant!" Admiral Wisconsin screamed at the prophet intently, his fists tightening over the turn of events and misalliances.  
"I just did!" The prophet snarled at him, almost resembling an angered teenager as he screamed at the UNSC forces, "Now to business, your own heresy weighs your feet and coils your own destruction human, but I am willing to spare your lives for a short time."

The Spartan's glanced at each other, confused by the prophet's deranged generosity.  
Admiral Wisconsin thought to himself for a second, and of the safety of his crew, "What would you have us do?"  
The prophet glanced towards the Spartans for a second, "Flee humans, simply flee", after a triumphant look, the prophet of Storm did something completely unpredictable that contradicted himself from his entire race.  
He laughed at them all, a maniacal and satisfied laughter that filled all of their coms. Then the screen turned to black and the communications was done.

"What the hell was…?" Admiral Wisconsin started, confused and furious with the prophet of Storm.  
Another voice interrupted him, "Sir! We have covenant hostiles closing in on our position, their gaining speed and meaning to board us at the hanger bays!"  
The Spartans looked to each other quickly, and then ran for the pelican in order to inform Mort'ang and prepare themselves for the fight ahead.  
Wisconsin didn't even notice their absence, "This is turning into bloody bedlam! How many hostiles do you count pilot!" He thundered to the underling.

"Sir, the corvette ship 'Reconciliation of Lies' is on a direct course to us, guns charging and readying themselves for battle!" The operator replied.

The Admiral was stumped for a moment; he had never anticipated an attack from the covenant corvette so soon and so ferociously outputting.  
"Prepare the Wary Warden for battle! Ship of all the wounded and civilians to the UNSC ship 'Red Dusk' as soon as time permits it" He thundered, he knew ONI wouldn't accept that the wounded Spartan would be left on a ship that was directly routed for its peril.


	20. Chapter 20

The doors sizzled open, letting the three Spartans enter the main hanger bay quickly; their armour worn and torn by the battle before but still operational as a whole.  
Mort'ang waited for them inside the hanger-bay cockpit patiently, and almost smiled as the Spartans finally caught up with him. Michael felt like smiling back but held it in, he had a job to do and the Storm soldiers would be attacking the ship any minute.

Gabriel started explaining the situation with him, "We got storm soldiers coming inbound the hanger bays Mort'ang you with us on this one?"  
The Shanghalli zealot looked back at him, his mandibles twitching nervously at the prospect of killing more of his kin, "I am with you human, the Storm faction is a virus that needs to be crushed."  
Michael nodded with him, pleased an issue didn't come out of this matter. Before he could reply in kind however, a noise emitted from the main hangers beacon systems.

Two phantoms were approaching their hanger bay, ready to intercept the shuttle's main docking hanger. Outside the hanger barrier, Raphael could see three banshees' flying past the phantoms in a quick succession of purple streaks.  
Raphael spoke up quickly, "Ok me and the Elite will make sure nothing passes through here alive or breathing" He spoke aggressively, ready to qualm any arguments that may arise.  
"Understood!" Gabriel shouted, moving back to the other hanger bays with Michael in order to qualm any other covenant attacks.

Raphael stood on the hanger bay cockpit, alone with Mort'ang and a small squad of supporting marines. He held a UNSC class grenade launcher and a shotgun on his back, ready for anything big enough to mess with him.  
The windows smashed open as the covenant boarded the ship, only to receive a heavy resistance as there welcoming party. Storm Grunts were dropped as easily as mayflies as soon as they landed in the UNSC vessel, the Jackals took a bit more persuasion but were simple enough to destroy.  
Mort'ang roared at the underling storm soldiers, firing his needle rifle until they all dropped to the hard metal floor. Many of the enemies exploded as the needles reacted together, creating a pink cloud of chemical reactions.

"Come on!" Raphael roared at them, firing his grenade launcher and felling many foes at once with the heavy weapon. Another set of phantoms unloaded more enemies, this time letting Storm Shanghalli fire upon the humans with storm rifles, needlers and carbines.

The big red Spartan roared at them, firing his primary weapon with all resolve he carried; suddenly a massive green ball of plasma hit him straight in the chest, completely depleting his shields and leaving him vulnerable to enemy fire.  
One storm elite roared and noticed this as an opportunity, quickly aiming his Carbine rifle to shoot the defenceless Spartan in the face. Nothing stopped the elite from firing.  
Its small and skinny projectile was flung through the air straight for Raphael, nothing could make it miss; except Mort'ang jumping in front of the bullet and defecting it of his blue shields.

The Golden Elite roared at the storm Shanghalli, activating his energy swords the Royal Zealot jumped straight into the fray and immediately struck down the carbine wielding elite with a powerful right armed sword thrust. The other storm soldiers looked confused as they faced down the Golden Zealot, they had never fought a member of their own covenant before.

Mort'ang stood against four elites alone, armed with an energy sword and a powerful vengeance as he struck down all his foes with a frenzied passion and hatred. Purple blood splattered his armour all the way down until it reached into his own wounds, mixing the elites blood with his own; which in a way was ok because they were the same species.  
Mort'ang paused for a second, unsure why he was fighting this enemy and committing this murder on his own kin, he couldn't even remember why he was slaughtering these Storm soldiers anyway.

Weren't they just like him, except with flawed thoughts and processes?  
Raphael appeared next to him, breaking the shields of another Storm elite by shooting it head on with a shotgun, after the warrior fell to the ground; the Spartan picked up its energy sword quickly and activated it to crush another storm soldier.

"Mort'ang!" A rough voice called to him.  
The golden zealot turned around to the strange sight of an official zealot standing in front of him wielding an energy sword and a frenzied anger.

It was Ta'ark, his former brother and friend.

Mort'ang roared at the other Shanghalli and paced around him, leaving the image of two zealots facing off against each other with identical armour but different coloured palettes. They circled each other slowly, watching each other's movements and pacing.  
Then suddenly they stuck, at exactly the same time they smashed their swords together and clashed the energy into a massive spark that erupted explosively. Again they clashed, driving their swords into each other and jumping back as the energy blew them back.

"Did you betray Ya'kai and join the Storm!" Mort'ang roared at him, cleaving his sword through the air and smashing it into his opponent's blade.  
"Of course not!" Ta'ark responded, parrying his frenzied blow and retaliating in kind, "It was your slippery master that betrayed the covenant!"  
The Golden zealot roared and tackled him to the ground in a frenzy; his sword fell to the floor as they both fell in a heap. Mort'ang grabbed his opponent's wrist and tried to force the sword out of his taloned hand.  
"Take that back Filth!" He screamed into Ta'ark's face, his mandibles spitting spittle over the Crimson zealot.  
Ta'ark scooped low and suddenly used his powerful legs to kick the golden zealot in the chest and of him, still holding his energy sword while Mort'ang was weapon-less, he roared at him, "Look around you! You are betraying your own race for the human scum!? What have you become!"

Mort'ang stopped for a moment, confused with the words his brother had left behind….his brother?  
He looked down to the ground at his dropped energy sword and almost wept over the slaughter he had committed to his own kind.  
Ta'ark noticed his opponent's confusion and roared, lunging forward in order to cut the golden zealot's head clean off.

But something stopped him, Raphael.

The Red Spartan IV spun around quickly and faced the Crimson elite quickly, the Human and Shanghalli both clad in blood red armour and carrying swords. Without a beat, the Spartan moved quickly; quicker than any elite could image, as he lunged forward and buried the energy sword into Ta'ark's chest.  
The crimson Zealot fell to the floor, purple blood spilling in and contrasting against his usual red armour, he spat out blood once and fell straight forward; sending the energy sword straight through his chest and out the back of his spine.

Raphael stood over the enemy zealot weapon-less, it had been a decent kill and he had at least saved Mort'ang's life from the monster of an enemy.  
The golden zealot looked up to the sight of his former brother dying on the floor, an energy sword erupting from his back and a pool of blood forming around him.

Rage filled the Golden Zealot, he stood up slowly and grabbed his energy sword from the blood ridden floor. Without pausing a beat or even to reconcile for his actions, Mort'ang stabbed the red Spartan in the back with the sword; letting it slice through his chest and erupt out his neck.

Raphael tried to scream as the blade was ripped out of his body, blood pouring out of the massive gash and into his red armour; mixing completely with his armour colour.

The Spartan IV dropped to the floor lifeless, his red blood mixing with Ta'ark's purple.

Mort'ang looked back at both of them, both sides of the life he used to life and entered the phantom unit that was sitting by the hanger; two grunts had been watching the entire spectacle in something close to fear. They paused, unsure whether to shoot or congratulate the zealot on his fine kill.  
The golden Zealot entered the phantom quickly, not looking back at the corpses as he left the UNSC vessel 'Wary Warden' to its doom and fate.


	21. Chapter 21

"Move up!" Michael roared to the civilians as he fired his battle rifle quickly onto the incoming enemy aliens who immediately fell back in puffs of luminous blood and purple speckles.  
The grey UNSC pelicans started on-loading the operating civilians as the Spartans fell under heavy fire from the storm rifles of the nearby Shanghalli warriors.  
Gabriel noticed that the wounded were starting to be placed inside an emergency vehicle, the blue Spartan sighed in relief at he saw his team-mate 'Lucifer' being on-loaded to the pelican quickly and out of harm's way. The wounded and civilians were to be sent to the UNSC Battle Cruiser "Red Dusk" as soon as possible.  
Gabriel fired his UNSC sniper rifle into the midst of the covenant soldiers, trying to slaughter their generals before they had a chance to regroup.

He roared into his microphone, "Admiral Wisconsin! The wounded are on pelicans awaiting orders to get out of here!"  
"Send them of Spartan" The admiral responded quickly, pleased with the progress of the Spartans as well as the Marines. The blue Spartan resumed firing on the storm covenant, felling a couple of Shanghalli warriors with a single bullet.

"Gabriel! You got a bogie on your left!" Michael roared at him, the battle rifle firing loudly over his helmet coms.  
The sniper turned around quickly to face a Shanghalli Storm General sprinting towards him, on his back the Shanghalli held a Carbine rifle and in the creature's taloned fist an energy sword was tightly grasped and its fury was completely focused on the Spartan IV.  
Gabriel immediately acted, firing his sniper rifle at the general's knee and crippling the monster with the heavy bullet round. The elite screamed and started shuffling towards him, still holding onto his energy sword. The Spartan turned back and fired his rifle at the general...but the sniper did not fire, it had been jammed by something.  
The general roared and swung its energy sword straight at him, only to have it blocked by the dysfunctional sniper rifle and thrown away with the weapon.  
Gabriel looked down at the general slowly, and drew his knife to finish the Storm elite in a violent but necessary way. After ending the elite's life, the Spartan grabbed his dropped Carbine and resumed firing on the storm soldiers; quickly felling the jackals and grunts with singular headshots.

Michael came to his side, still wielding his battle rifle and firing furiously at the enemy aliens, "Raphael isn't reporting in! We should go check up on him" he sounded almost panicked over the idea of losing another team-mate.  
Before Gabriel could respond, another voice interrupted him, "Negative Spartan, your objective is to assist the pelicans out of the Wary Warden and then get yourself on one of them straight to the Red Dusk!"  
"But sir…" Michael started.  
"But nothing Spartan! Complete your objective and get your ass on that pelican!" The Admiral roared at him via his communications, "You have a direct order and my god you better stick by it!"  
Gabriel acknowledged his confirmation and nodded slowly, firing his Carbine at the last grunt and killing it instantly. The other Spartan was quiet for the rest of the trip to get to the pelican, he was obviously still milling over the prospect of his team-mate having fallen in battle.  
They clambered onto the last pelican with the rest of the marines, grabbing onto the rails and preparing themselves for the flight ahead.  
"Get us out of here pilot!" one of the marines shouted, holding onto his seat nervously.  
The pelican started hovering up from the cold flooring and started to fly away, leaving the UNSC Frigate Wary Warden to whatever the covenant could throw at it.

**Meanwhile**  
"Corvette on interception course Admiral, what are our orders?" The pilot spoke harshly, as if he knew how Wisconsin would answer.  
"Fire up generators and prepare the Frigate for combat" He replied shortly, he was confident with his position over the attacking ship.  
"Sir! The Supreme Cruiser is warming up its primary cannons and preparing to fire!" Another operator shouted, confused with the recent actions. This confused the Admiral as well, the second covenant ship had remained dormant for over three hours and was too far to fire upon or be fired by any weaponry designed by Covenant or Mankind.  
'What are they playing at?' the Admiral thought to himself curiously.

"Sir! Slip-space rupture detected!" Wisconsin's second in command screamed, as soon as the Covenant Supreme Carrier disappeared of their radar sets and appeared right in front of their scanners and Frigate. It had teleported to their location in less than two seconds flat, showing up right in front of their UNSC craft and ready to fire. It was a massive ship, their frigate barely made a quarter of its hull's length and width or its weaponry.  
"Sweet Lord" the admiral spoke slowly.  
Without pause or hesitation, a specific cannon on the Covenant Supreme Carrier fired accurately at the primary cockpit of the Frigate, killing everyone inside and disabling the entire ship.


	22. Chapter 22

The UNSC pelican soared through the air right over the forerunner site and straight up into the path of the dormant second ship, the Battle carrier 'Red Dusk'. The Spartans sat in the lower seats of the vehicle, watching out as their former frigate was being blown apart due to the Covenant Supreme Carrier with a solemn lack of words. The Wary Warden wasn't even firing back as the Storm ship blew its plasma batteries into the hull of the frigate, leaving smoke of energy and sparks flowing through the ship. The plasma cut through the ship's exterior hull as easily as a hot knife but through soft butter.

Michael watched as the entire human vessel was pummelled into simple fragments of metal, plasma and fire, "You think they made it out of there?"  
Gabriel looked back down at him, sighing slowly, "Honestly rookie, I don't think anything survived that wreck." The only thing that they had been able to save was the wounded and civilians; including Lucifer and Lieutenant Drafter.

The Frigate's inner generators were suddenly hit by the radioactive plasma that had been carving slowly into the metal interiors; the explosive rocketed the entire Frigate splitting it into two even metal exterior structures and thousands of makeshift meteors.  
"Incoming!" The pilot screamed in fear as large hunks of metal started appearing on his radar set; the same pieces that were flung right to smash into the pelican's back.  
The back hover engines were immediately crushed to pieces and erupted into a blue fiery cloud of shards of metal.  
Sirens screamed as the entire vehicle fell forward, losing all altitude and plummeting downwards into the planet's surface. Cloud's flashed by the falling hunk of metal as it descended quickly before nearing to crash into the rocky earth.

Michael panicked quickly, grabbing onto the upper handlebars in fear of the crash landing; the other Spartan screamed out to the marines as they started getting flung out of the destroyed pelican. He failed to warn them as the final soldier disappeared from his view.  
"Hold on!" Gabriel roared to his team-mate as the harsh rocky ground rushed up to meet them in a violent rush.

**Meanwhile**  
"Lieutenant Drafter? We have confirmation on the injured Spartan IV reaching our medical bays, also the UNSC Frigate 'Wary Warden' is completely destroyed"  
The ONI operator turned around slowly, "An acceptable loss, it will look good on the report", after the betrayal of the Covenant forces; she had started a report on the destruction of the Priority II Agreement due to the Shanghalli's interactions.  
"Where are the other Spartans?" She spoke slowly, her lips barely moving as she remembered the events on board the Wary Warden as well as their mutiny and disloyalty.  
"Unclear ma'am, the other emergency vehicles are still coming into hanger C with more civilians and wounded soldiers" The operator replied slowly, watching his monitor as the pelicans entered the Red Dusk's barrier.  
Drafter turned back to her cockpit's monitoring system in anticipation, she felt like something was going to happen again; something was going to happen.

Suddenly the major screen of the entire cockpit flashed purple quickly, grabbing the entire set of operator's attention quickly.  
A small face flickered onto the screen, the stunted face of a San 'Shyuum prophet attached to the small disproportionate body that sat upon a hovering throne of a chair. The Storm leader watched over the humans in a mix of amusement and disgust.  
Drafter stepped forward slowly, "My name is Lieutenant…"  
The prophet raised his two fingered long hand and stopped her quickly, "No need to speak human, I come with a simple message and one I shall say once."  
The entire cockpit remained silent slowly, waiting for the Storm to speak their intentions in order to hopefully counteract against it. Drafter breathed slowly, unsure over how safe she really was in this situation; she was all too aware of the power this prophet commanded.

Suddenly an image came up on the screen, a current image of the destroyed Frigate that was currently starting to plummet down to the planet's surface.  
The prophet's voice came over this image, "I am halting my attack on your race, merely to give you a chance to flee, take it or you will end up like your companions?"  
Laughter ended the communications slowly.  
The Lieutenant stopped what she was doing, terrified at the prospect of her ship being turned into metal mesh with blue plasma and smoke peeking out of the holes.  
Then she turned around to her operators, speaking slowly, "Prepare to leave the planet's atmosphere, gather slip-space generator's back to the closest known human settlement."


	23. Chapter 23

"Kilo…14!? Respond!"  
A sharp voice awoke the Spartan IV, he opened his eyes to realise the situation he had found himself in. He roughly pushed two clashes of metal and rocks of his armoured chest piece until he was free to stand up and look around himself. His Mjonlir armour had almost had been stripped completely of the green over-coating and much of his armour edges.  
Michael dropped to the floor again, his left leg was refusing to operate completely to his commands or will. He needed to find Gabriel and get them both out of their alive and safe, everything else was secondary. The Spartan IV looked back towards the pelican crash, checking for any living human beings; luckily he couldn't spot Gabriel among the rubble.  
The grey coated Spartan looked around himself and realised he was completely unarmed as well as underpowered due to his mis-functional energy shields. Suddenly a purple phantom swopped overhead, its flashlight searching for any survivors that may have struggled out of the wreckage.  
Michael hid himself back under the rubble as the vehicle passed overhead and continued flying to the more forestational north.  
He waited for the vehicle to leave and then continued to search for his team-mate in something close to fearful anticipation.  
"Rookie?" A voice called from behind.

Overhead the phantom continued up to the destroyed UNSC frigate remains that had embedded themselves into the overgrowth of the forests, letting the fire escape into the trees and slowly destroy the natural composition of the habitat. Mort'ang watched over the burning vegetation with a vigorous snarl on his face, a Needle rifle grasped in his taloned armoured hands.  
His phantom slowly observed the transaction of the Forerunner Shuttle site, which was currently surrounded by covenant shuttles and machinery. The covenant Supreme Carrier was positioned directly over the forerunner site, letting phantoms and banshee's fly down to the planet's surface and unload Covenant soldiers and heavy weaponry on the black soil and around the overgrowth'd forest.  
The golden zealot looked back at the pelican, remembering his truce with the humans as some form of mistake in his life.  
And he would never make that mistake again.

**Meanwhile**  
Gabriel watched over his team-mate slowly, noticing the other Spartan had been completely wrecked up by the pelican crash. They were both unarmed and vulnerable, leaving them unsure whether to hole up or to keep moving.  
"That Phantom will be back, we gotta move Michael" He spoke slowly, noticing that his voice com's didn't work at all; forcing him to speak loudly to get his voice through his helmet.  
The other Spartan IV nodded once, grabbing a large rock from the floor and hefting it in a throwing position, "We could get to the Crashed Frigate and find an operational vehicle or communications? We need to get the hell of this planet."  
They moved forward slowly, watching their HUD's for anything that moved; as their radar simulations didn't operate anymore. Gabriel crossed his fists together in anticipation as they walked up to the crashed vehicle.  
"You honestly think a destroyed frigate will have anything operational inside?" the Blue Spartan spoke out-loud, confused with the turn of events.

Both of the Spartan IV's looked over their own ruptured pelican and looked back down to the wreckage slowly.  
"I guess if we survived the pelican crash, others could be inside the Wary Warden right now; even Raphael." Michael replied optimistically, gripping his heavy rock with a tighter fist.  
The blue sniper glanced at him with something close to a smile on his face, before turning back and realising the destroyed shuttle that was their objective; had been swopped down and surrounded by Covenant Storm phantoms.  
"We're gonna have to get past those guys first, you ready for another firefight Spartan?" Gabriel spoke quickly, nervous over all future actions with the covenant; the lack of his Energy Shields being operational may led to his easy death.  
Michael stopped for a second, nervous as well.  
In a situation as dire as this, they didn't know what to do.


	24. Chapter 24

Long bristles tweaked on the Kig-Yar scout, it squawked loudly to its brethren; barrier shield Jackals that were nervously exploring the in-depth points of the broken human frigate that had crashed in on the forests overgrowth of the planet's surface.  
The scout continued exploring, struggling to hold his Carbine rifle accurately through the dark corridors of the destroyed vessel. He hefted the weapon with one small feathered arm and gestured forward to his brethren of Jackal minors.

One of them squawked in fear at something quickly, activating his wrist gauntlet in order to create a barrier of hard-light energy into a circular shield that immediately created a formidable defence for the individual Storm jackal. A shadow ran past the entire group quickly, too fast for the creatures to see accurately; although they did manage to fire their weaponry at the space left behind them.

Suddenly a large rock was flung in the general direction of the Kig-Yar scout, smashing it in the chest piece and flinging it backwards quickly. As the jackal screamed and fell backwards, it fired its carbine quickly in fear and reflexed movements; firing the light green projectile into the back of his team-mates in mistake.

The other jackals screamed as their leader fell while firing upon its own ranks, another rock smashed into one of the minors; causing it to fall it in the way of the others.  
Michael took this as his opportunity, running forward and smashing the jackals across the face with his fist until they stopped moving and stayed still.  
He stepped forward and grabbed the dropped Carbine of the floor; he threw it to the second Spartan and grabbed a dropped Needler from the other jackal corpses.  
They ran together through the destroyed vehicle bay of the Frigate, searching for any forms of communication or transportation. A small squad of grunts met them in the ruptured remains of the original hanger bay, immediately getting shot down by carbine fire and needler explosive clouds.

Before they could advance to the communications room, something stopped them from leaving the hanger bay, the dissembled corpse of Raphael; their former team-mate and friend. The Green Spartan observed his team-mates corpse slowly, fear stricken onto his face as he realised that the Red warrior had been skewered from behind by a covenant energy sword.

Michael dropped to the ground slowly, his squad had been cut down so easily by the ruthless covenant squatters and now they remained a fragment of their former strength and unity.  
"Get up Michael, we've got to get the hell out of here" Gabriel spoke slowly while avoiding the image of Raphael's red corpse, grabbing his team-mates shoulder and moving him around.

They both walked forward slowly, taking every individual step as a challenge and test as they eventually progressed to the communications room.  
It was completely ripped off from the main section of the ship, a set of destroyed trees in the way of the Spartan IV's progress. But eventually they managed to get through to the main room and gain access to the many helmet coms; most were destroyed but the rest were operational enough to be used to contact the Red Dusk.

A roar was heard outside the room; Storm Elite soldiers had spotted them and were attempting to cut them down with continuous storm rifle blue bolts. The Spartans looked to each other slowly; there armour was still exposed by the lack of energy shields.  
Gabriel threw his Carbine to the rookie, "Hold them of Michael, I'll get command to pick us up"  
The green Spartan nodded once, cocking the covenant rifle and immediately throwing a grenade to bounce of the wall and splatter against the Storm soldiers furiously.

"This is Gabriel of the Kilo – Foxtrot 13 Spartan squad, requesting immediate pick-up on our current location Red Dusk!" the Sniper spoke slowly, trying to confirm their safety.  
Drafter replied slowly, 'Negative Spartan, the Red Dusk is preparing slip-space jump in less than 20 minutes, we are under specific orders from the…"  
Gabriel interrupted her shortly, completely put off and frustrated with her typical ONI nonsense, "Your taking the Prophet's advice aren't you, your fleeing and leaving us behind", he almost shouted at the Lieutenant before hanging up on the communications in anger.

"Michael! Let's get the hell out of here!" He roared in anger, tightening his fists at the betrayal of his team-mate and him. Suddenly an explosive awoke him from his anger sending Michael flying into the wall with blood emitting from his chest wounds.  
He reached behind and sprang straight towards the Storm Shanghalli in fury with a knife grasped in his hand, he roared in anger and stabbed the major right in the back of the neck; serving its spinal cords and killing it instantly.  
The Shanghalli warrior fell to the floor heavily, clunking its chest piece straight onto the heavy and hard UNSC regulation floor.

Michael stepped up slowly, stopping the bleeding of his chest with a simple hand movement and protecting his body from further injuries. The blue Spartan stepped up and grabbed his wounded team-mate by the arm again and carrying him out of the destroyed Frigate slowly and carefully.

Michael looked up at him, "Just leave me, you need to get out of here"  
Gabriel looked down at him slowly, "Like hell that is going to happen."


	25. Chapter 25 : The Choice

The adjacent phantom hovered by itself, with zero occupants and acting as a clear and helpful vehicle in order to escape the planet and leave before the Battle Cruiser 'Red Dusk' could slip-space away from the planet. The two Spartans grabbed onto the hovering covenant stolen vehicle quickly, Gabriel clambered over to the piloting section and left Michael to sit down and relax while they flew out of the atmosphere of the planet.

The blue Spartan smiled as they started flying away from the destroyed Frigate together, finally cutting a free break in order to escape to the UNSC Battle Cruiser.  
"Hey Michael, you alright back there!?" He shouted behind him, getting an affirmative groan as an answer from his team-mate and friend.

He looked down at the forerunner sight slowly that was currently surrounded by covenant soldiers and shuttles, then the Spartan started to think to himself; he knew how badly the effect could be if the Storm faction gained access to such an important forerunner dig site. Guilt started to fill the Spartan's views and thought processes; he knew what he had to do for the better cause for humanity, even if it did threaten their lives.

Gabriel looked around back at Michael, who had just stood up and flexed out his chest one last time; the former green Spartan nodded at him slowly. They both knew that what they had to do was the harder, but the greater option for both of them.

"One last time?" Gabriel asked slowly, grabbing onto his armour cell pods and jamming them into his suit's energy reserves; instantly activating his energy shields to revive again.  
Michael activated his own energy shields slowly, preparing himself for the last adventure and objective he could foresee to do in the future; "Let's do this."

"Gear up!" Gabriel roared at him in happiness as he saw the assortment of weaponry stacked on the walls. The Blue Spartan IV grabbed a set of three plasma grenades, a Beam Rifle Sniper and a Fuel Rod Cannon in order to equip himself. The Green Spartan IV responded by grabbing a covenant elite Energy Sword and hitching it onto his thigh holster.

"I guess we don't have a meal to finish this one off" Michael spoke, his voice heavy with regret.  
"We don't need one" Gabriel replied slowly.

They looked at each other slowly; both splattered with blood, destroyed armour pieces and plasma burns. They nodded one last time and embraced each other as brothers.

**Meanwhile**  
Mort'ang watched over the slow extraction of the forerunner shuttle site, the "Infamous Fury" Supreme Carrier started activating its primary thruster in order to start freeing the ancient ship from the entrapment of the black un-natural earth. Nothing could stop them now, at least nothing that still lived.

The golden zealot watched over the slow transfer without judgement or attitude, instead letting the cleansing of the planet become his own religious harmony. Shrieks interrupted the Shanghalli from his own personal thoughts, letting him see the strange sight of one of his own phantoms spinning through the air and descending down straight with a collision course onto the Forerunner ship, within seconds the vehicle would crash into the holy relic and possibly end it's assistance for the Storm.

"Blast that heresy down!" Mort'ang shouted angrily, letting the Storm Anti-Air wraith's start to reload and prepare their fuel rod repeater cannons at the vehicle. He stood by the vehicles as they fired straight into the air, sending hundreds of green balls fly through the air in an interception course with the phantom.

A figure jumped out of the vehicle quickly, landing roughly on the soft black soil behind the forerunner site. The figure crouched down immediately and fired his beam rifle at the anti –air wraith's cockpit quickly; cutting through the operator's head and making the entire vehicle turn its aiming turrets and actually fire upon its own forerunner structure for a short moment.

Mort'ang roared as he saw the ship take numerous hits before the vehicle ceased to operate without a pilot; the holy relic was not to be touched!  
He furiously screamed to the Storm soldiers, "His heresy reeks this holy shuttle, destroy the demon!" sending over forty Covenant soldiers to intercept Gabriel before the Spartan IV could do anymore damage.  
Suddenly, the phantom smashed straight into the forerunner ship from above, crushing a central wing and section of the entire vehicle as well as sending plasma and fire all over it.

Another figure jumped out of the phantom, descending awkwardly and landing straight in front of the Golden Zealot with a thud of black soil.  
Michael stepped up, his shields recovering from the long fall, and looked back to the destruction he wreaked to the forerunner site. The Spartan activated his energy sword quickly, stepping forward and cutting down a covenant Shanghalli warrior quickly before noticing the Golden Zealot in front of him.

Time froze for the Spartan IV, and suddenly everything made sense.  
"Mort'ang" He growled slowly, his voice gripping the Zealot like frozen blood.

The Spartan and Elite ran towards each other aggressively, both wielding Energy swords and staring at each other with a hated passion.  
And they clashed.


	26. Chapter 26

Blue streaks of light rushed through the soft soil, cutting into the charging Shanghalli warriors and splattering them across the black soil so they could mix their purple blood with the darkness.  
Gabriel fired again, dropping another set of Elite warriors with a quick set of energy beams; the Storm covenant soldiers were rushing up to him with weaponry drawn and their religious belief's furious. The Blue Spartan IV was surrounded by the covenant soldiers quickly; they immediately started firing their Storm rifles, Needlers and plasma pistols together at him. Golden shields appeared around the sniper as the covenant rounds bounced of his exterior barriers.

Gabriel switched to the heavy weapon on his back, the orange fuel rod cannon that he had fixed on his back holster. He opened fire on them, letting several green tubes smash into the enemy and explode in a fiery explosive of green sparks.

He continued firing until all the soldiers fell the floor in an explosive flash of green, then he readjusted his aim until his bullets started heading towards the uncovered wings of the forerunner ship. The blasts smashed into the shuttle slowly, starting to alight it with green sets of fire and energy pulses.  
He roared as he unloaded every projectile he contained in order to injure the forerunner site as much as possible. The Spartan IV dropped the orange fuel rod as soon as he ran out of shells, pulling out the Beam rifle and preparing to take out more covenant soldiers.

A soft growl confused Gabriel, it came from behind him.  
The Blue Spartan turned around quickly as soon as he was smashed in the visor by a heavy and quick black fist. The momentum carried him all the way until he fell to the ground in pain, he could feel his face bleeding.  
Gabriel looked up slowly through his cracked visor at the enemy standing in front of him.  
It was a large black elite clad in armour reminiscent of the Arbiter.  
It was the bane of humanity, the hand of the Storm.  
The Harbinger.

**Meanwhile**  
Sparks flew all over the Spartan as he clashed his blade with the Golden Zealot and his former friend; Mort'ang.

Michael rushed forward again, lunging his energy blade to slash horizontally across the elite's neck and face. Mort'ang parried it quickly and efficiently, managing to dodge the frenzied Spartan with minimal effort.  
"After everything you said about our peace treaty?" Michael shouted at him, slowly walking around the Elite and evaluating his next move.  
Mort'ang's mandibles flexed as he ran at the Spartan with his blade held high over his head, he slashed at the soldier's chest in a diagonal move but only received a blocked assault and his enemy kicking him back.

He sank back to a crouching position, breathing heavily before standing up to his full height, the Shanghalli smelled out and growled as he sensed old dried blood on his enemy. This time he prowled around the Spartan and evaluated his next move. He needed to anger his opponent to the point of making a foolish move; Demons were very un-natural fighters and never tired on the battlefield; unlike himself.

"Answer me!" Michael roared, hysteria balanced on his voice.  
The Shanghalli paused for a moment, "Always so demanding, your friend demanded my upmost attention as well; unfortunately for him, he got it!" He roared and swung his blade backwards in order to capture the Spartan of guard.

Michael screamed, blocked the attack and immediately ran forward; swiping his energy sword left and right in a furious rage that would hopefully kill his opponent.  
Mort'ang retreated from the frenzied Spartan, carefully elaborating every single one of his moves slowly as he blocked the sword thrusts.

"We trusted you!" Michael screamed, slashing at the elite's blade and knocking it aside.  
"He trusted you!" The Spartan continued yelling, rushing forward before Mort'ang could recover his wits and retaliate.  
"I TRUSTED YOU!" The former green Spartan shouted at the top of his lungs, cutting his sword across horizontally so quickly that it would easily decapitate the traitorous elite.

Mort'ang ducked down quicker than any man or elite could see, letting the energy sword slice through his upper metal helmet piece like a knife through butter. The Shanghalli Zealot immediately spun around the Spartan; grabbing Michael's wrist and snapping it backwards like a twig.  
The sword handle fell to the ground quickly, only to be caught by the elite Royal Zealot.

Who proceeded to stab the energy sword straight through the heart of the Spartan IV, leaving the blade skewered through his Mjonlir armour and out his chest.

Time stopped for Michael, he dropped down slowly and felt the blade being ripped out of his own body; replaced by a torrent of blood and lack of life.  
"Is this what you did to him?" He spat out blood as his energy ebbed away slowly.  
Mort'ang paused for a moment, starting to remember the assassination he committed on the large red Spartan before he replied, "Not exactly."

And with a low backwards thrust of his right sword hand, the Elite slashed horizontally and completely decapitating the Spartan without a second of hesitation.

Michael's head fell down and landed on the soft black soil, his helmet falling off as  
the blood mixed in with the dark floor. His death only witnessed by the one creature that had called him his friend, the golden Royal Zealot named Mort'ang.


	27. Chapter 27

"Hierarch? The savour is ready to undergo transportation" The Shanghalli Commander spoke to Storm slowly, activating the Covenant Supreme Carrier 'Infamous Fury' great fielding ports in order to free the forerunner site from its earthly prison.

The Prophet of Storm watched over the shuttle slowly, observing the numerous wounds it had experienced during the battle with the two rebellious humans that had thought to bring it down.  
He looked down and noticed 'Mort'ang' had quickly eliminated the foolish Demon who had tried to match him in a sword dual. The other Spartan was soon to be killed as well, he was under attack by the Harbinger himself; something that always led to death.

The prophet had seen this Harbinger rip of the helmet piece out of a fully grown brute as well as rip hunters apart with ease. Storm had no doubt that his 'hand' was the most formidable force in the universe and not something to be reckoned with.  
Satisfaction filled the Hierarch's eyes as he looked back to the forerunner sight they had all dubbed 'The saviour', the wounds inflicted would easily be repaired and before long the entire vehicle would be accessible and even flyable.

"Activate the fielding ports; let us access this site for the greater good of the Covenant and the Storm!" The prophet roared to them all, allowing shouts and cheers to reply.

**Meanwhile**  
A massive cluster of black soil was flung into the air as the heavy weight of a blue Spartan IV was thrown across the air and impacted badly to the ground.  
Gabriel looked up as fast as he could, gathering his wits and body to comply to his demands; all objectives and missions had faded from his mind, now the rush and adrenaline of human basic survival was fuelling his muscles and wishes.

A massive two taloned boot thundered next to him, heavily vibrating the ground and orchestrating a thick and muscular leg tone. The Spartan spun around swiftly, to see the sight of the second boot smashing down and catching him right in the chest.  
He screamed out as he felt two of his ribs cracking, the massive boot crushing him into the black soil slowly. Rage filled his mind as a third rib snapped under the pressure, causing the Spartan to kick upwards and push the Harbinger of him.

The Shanghalli Nemesis wasn't even carrying his primary weapon; the handle of his energy reaper was sticking up from his back holster. The black Shanghalli snorted and waited for his prey to slowly stand up, before flexing his right leg up and kicking out.

The boot caught Gabriel in the face, smashing his visor into an unrecognisable mess as he fell to the ground again. He attempted to stir, but the pain was too much for even his reinforced frame to cope with. He didn't have to.  
The Harbinger reached down and snatched the Spartan from the neck, lifting his prey up by one heavily muscled and armoured arm. Gabriel roared as his helmet fell free of his face, exposing blonde hair and a deep set of blue eyes; and screamed as the Shanghalli started to squeeze his neck.

Suddenly, laughter emitted from the creature; and he turned the Spartan around with a simple rotation of his arm; so that Gabriel could see the events happening to his team-mate Michael.  
In horror, the Blue Spartan IV watched as the Golden Zealot, there former friend; grabbed his decapitated friends head from the floor and raised it to all the world to see whilst roaring his victory and kicking the body over.

Uncontrollable rage filled Gabriel completely, allowing him the strength to shake free from his enemy and jump back down to the ground. He didn't wait for the Harbinger to strike this time, choosing to smash his fist into the elite's chest.  
Bones broke as the shot landed home, the Spartan's fingers didn't stand a chance against the reinforced armour of the nemesis. Gabriel howled as his fingers refused to operate functionally, pain reaching up from his broken ribs to his ruptured knuckles.

The black elite snorted in anger at the provoked attack and immediately grabbed his energy reaper handle from behind. Activating it and letting the plasma coils form a symmetrical 'axe' of energy and power; the elite walked forward.

And sliced of the Spartan's left arm.

Gabriel fell to his knees, he couldn't feel anything anymore and he didn't care either. Everything they had worked for had turned to ashes in his mouth.  
There was no point anymore.  
And so he looked straight up to the menacing elite and swore at him, "What's the matter? Can't finish the job!?"

The Harbinger looked right back down at him slowly, as if evaluating his opposition once and for-all before replying, "The question isn't what I can do, it's about what I want" His voice was quick but harsh, low but demanding.  
"And what I want, Is something you may be able to give me" he continued speaking, letting the Spartan wonder over his fate.  
And then the Harbinger stood up, affixing the plasma reaper onto his back and readjusting himself to leave.  
"I want you to give me a challenge Prey, something I haven't had in over a millennia; I want you to hunt me down yourself and put your entire existence on the line of revenge."

Gabriel looked up at him fuzzily, his mind slowly going blank as the nausea kicked in.  
"Only then, may you die at my hand."

The Spartan IV fell to the floor heavily, blood seeping through his left shoulder socket and numerous areas of his body; mixing the red liquid with the black soil and the gold of his hair.


	28. Chapter 28

Red blood slowly dripped of the Shanghalli's arm, falling down the golden forearm armour piece and slipping down the two primary fingers. The Royal Zealot grabbed his energy sword from the floor and left the scene, walking towards the parked phantom with the surviving Storm soldiers. He sat in the covenant vehicle slowly, watching the other Storm elites sit themselves and un-arm themselves completely for the ride back to the Covenant Corvette 'Reconciliation of Lies".

"Zealot", A voice called from outside the dormant vehicle.  
Mort'ang turned his heavy head to the side, his armour encrusted with slashes and heavy sets of Shanghalli and Human blood.  
The Harbinger stood outside the vehicle looking down at the golden Shanghalli slowly, his armour completely unmarked and jet black as ever.  
"What is it?" The Zealot replied angrily, tired with the events of the day and this new interrogation by the Harbinger as well as the Prophet.  
"The prophet will be demanding your attention on the Supreme Carrier, do not disappoint him." The nemesis growled at him before turning his back and leaving the phantom in its dormant state, the black Shanghalli was never one for small talk, and it was only because the prophet can commanded him to; that he had even spoken to the lowly elite.

Mort'ang turned back to the elites under his command and breathed loudly, "This needs to be done first"  
And so the phantom ascended upwards, heading towards the small corvette quickly; ready to intercept and continue the requests of the Golden Zealot.  
Memories filled his thought process as the phantom neared his destination, memories of the covenant at piece with humanity and where the ONI operators would walk all over them.  
It was all a lie to the Shanghalli, and he was happy the Storm prophet had managed to interrupt the veil of lies set to them all by the human deceivers. Mort'ang didn't regret his decision for a second; it was the greater move to do.

Only one thing stopped his ascension to the great journey and the path of the Hierarch's.  
He had to confront his old master, the Shanghalli Field Marshal that refused the assistance of the Storm and furthermore was currently rotting in the detention cells of the corvette "Reconciliation of Lies."

Mort'ang breathed in slowly, he had to take command over Ya'kai.

**Meanwhile**  
Methane gas exploded out of the primary mask of the small Unggoy as it slowly stumbled over the soft black soil, it was encased in simple white ultra-armour that was covered with luminous blue blood and sparks. It was the last survivor of the original set of storm covies that had been sent after the blue Sniper Spartan that had caused heresy on 'the survivor'. All of his brethren and nipple brothers had been slaughtered by the Spartan's use of a stolen fuel rod cannon, and now the little Unggoy would have his revenge.

The Spartan laid on the ground, covered in blood and soil and destroyed blue Mjonlir armour; his arm was missing for some reason but that didn't matter to the Grunt. The Unggoy could tell that the human was still alive, but not for long.

It grunted slowly at the unconscious soldier and prepared his stolen Needler to slaughter it as it stayed asleep. Methane escaped from his mask again as it primed its primary weapon to fire quickly; within seconds the Grunt started to fire needles at the downed Spartan.  
Suddenly the Unggoy was smacked backwards by a quick headshot from above, stopping the fire quickly. It was killed instantly, saving the Spartan and revealing the Sniper's true guardian angel.

A USNC pelican started descending from the clouds quickly, its hanger door cocked open with a Sniper Rifle poking out of the window. It smashed into the earth without further grace and immediately unloaded a small squad of marines to land and run towards the dropped blue Spartan.

They picked him up carefully, leaving his left arm behind as they carried him onto the pelican without further problems.  
Gabriel stirred as the soldiers moved him to safety, looking up slowly he struggled to stay conscious as he saw the man who was responsible for saving his life completely.

Lucifer looked back at him coldly, still clad in black armour but with a new visor. He walked up to the heavily wounded Spartan and slowly put his fingers over Gabriel's eyes, making the Sniper immediately fall asleep in exhaustion and lack of wanting to life.


	29. Chapter 29

The UNSC craft nicknamed the 'Pelican' ascended quickly, its occupants keen to get away from the planet and its violent inhabitants. Two covenant ships now lay over the forerunner dig site, the corvette looking small in comparison to the 'Infamous Fury'. Both ships barely even noticed the UNSC Battle Cruiser preparing to flee the planet, they knew the humans were going to flee; and they commended it.  
Gabriel still laid down in the middle of the pelican, murmuring softly as he shifted in his sleep; the loss of blood and shock had done a great impact to the Spartan, and the medical officers may not have the skill to save him.

The Black Spartan watched over his team-mate slowly, not saying a word as his friend drifted across the fine line of sleeping and dying. He could only hope that he wasn't too late.  
After waking up on the Red Dusk; with his face partially healed, Lucifer had demanded his squad's location and then stolen a UNSC pelican with a loyal team of marines to assist him. He had descended quickly and just come in time to realise he may have been too late to save the limbless Spartan from death.  
Only time could tell if he had succeeded in saving at least one of his friends, god knew what happened to the others.

"Spartan!" A marine called out from behind, "Something's happening to the site."  
Lucifer stood up and walked over to the window set at the main hanger doors of the pelican, he looked through and saw the familiar black soil and forestation amidst the clouds that encased them.  
But the forerunner ship was different; it was slowly being ripped out of the dead soul by a large set of purple beams that emitted from the Corvette and Supreme Carrier.  
The covenant ships worked together to tug the entire ship at least halfway out of the sand before their batteries depleted, ready to charge up and start again soon.

But now the hull of the forerunner ship was visible, it was a lot bigger than the humans had originally anticipated and as the Spartan watched; Storm soldiers started to swarm around the entire site to enter the sacred vessel from several positions.  
The marines swore and whistled at the same time as they saw the forerunner ships mass slowly rip out of the soil, they breathed in relief as they saw that the freeing of the ship was stopped halfway; and then started swearing again as they saw Covenant Sangheili entering the vehicle.

Lucifer watched without emotion or commitment, suddenly his radio flickered and a communications transaction was sent through.  
"Spartan 700 are you there?" Lieutenant Drafter's voice came over his coms.  
He acknowledged his confirmation quickly, keen for the conversation to be over already.  
"As article 504 demands me to inform you, the Red Dusk is preparing slip-space jump in 5 minutes; so you better get yourself on here right now"

Lucifer confirmed again, shutting of his communications and sitting right back down with Gabriel, the black Spartan hadn't bothered reporting in the forerunner site's development; he was sure another marine would beat him to it anyway.  
But for now, the Spartan IV was content with sitting with his team-mate and listening to him mumble slowly as he battled death inside of himself.

**Meanwhile**  
"Hierarch, our breeching parties are attempting to enter the 'Saviour' and discover its secrets; reports will be issued in momentarily."  
The Prophet of Storm sank back down to his seat; the past events had excited him terribly; especially the excavation of the god's vessel down below. As soon as the plasma coils of his supreme carrier had cooled down and filled back up with energy, they would rip the 'Saviour' out of the earth and utilise all its riches, bounties and religious artefacts to fuel the Storm's effort.

He calmed himself down again, the ancient bristles on his face sparking sharply, "Where is the Harbinger" He called out to his operators.  
"Awaiting your orders at the site your Excellency"  
Storm smiled, "Good, have him lead the main party right into the delve of the ship; and be sure to remind him that our 'prize' need not be injured or squandered; these holy oracles are ever so fragile." He noted, chuckling to himself.  
The operating Shanghalli nodded once and turned back to his work without further interruption.


	30. Chapter 30 : To be continued

Blood spluttered all over his face as he woke, he vomited immediately and let loose another torrent of blood and liquid into the nearby sink as he fell back down to his position of lying down.  
Gabriel opened his eyes slowly; letting the nervous eyelids tremble as he surveyed his surrounds quickly; looking for anything that could rip out his organs or feed on him.  
He was in a white room; everything was clean and perfectly organised in patterns of their own. It was a typical emergency medivac room for injured soldiers…but wait? Was he even injured?

The soldier looked around himself and noticed his right arm and legs were fine, his chest had been operated on and was covered in stitches and bandages but that was alright. Only until he turned to his left did the Spartan IV realise and remember what happened to him.  
His entire left arm was gone, the tips of his fingers all the way up his elbow and even to his shoulder just ceased to exist anymore; replaced by a heavy set of metal sheets and bandages to stop the bleeding and him feeling anything.  
He roared out-loud, smashing the back of his head into the soft cushion in absolute anger as he couldn't even move his arm anymore. In-controllable rage filled his entire body, enough to make him stand up and immediately smash his right fist into the wall, pain arched his hand; reminding him of the similar punch he had performed on the Harbinger.  
Memories flashed past the Spartan as he started to remember the entire ordeal, the numerous kicks he had received, the punch that had broken his fingers and even the energy reaper coming down and slicing of his arm.

But something was missing, something alot worse than any injuries he had sustained. He fell to his knees trying to remember the one memory that he had been blocking out for the past set of minutes…or was it an hour? He couldn't even remember the time anymore.  
He gritted his teeth slowly as he went over the same memories over and over again in his head, trying to pin-point the turning point that could led to his insanity.

Then slowly he looked down at his reflection on the clear and perfect medivac floor and saw the blonde hair and blue eyes look straight back at him. He had a friend with almost identical facial features…but who was it? And what had happened to him?

Michael…his name was Michael.

And then the Spartan IV smashed his good hand into the floor so quickly that the entire surface smashed like a mirror from his rage.  
Tears fell from his face as freely as his emotions had spilled out.  
He remembered what had happened to Michael.

Rage overcame him as he sat hunched over the smashed floor, blood and tears falling out of his face as he smashed his head into the already destroyed floor. He screamed out his friends name in desperation, calling out for him although he knew it was pointless.  
Because everything was pointless, everything was a joke and everything was worthless.  
Michael was dead, and it was his entire fault.

**Meanwhile**  
The tight metal bars were separated almost an inch apart, enough for a blade to enter but not for a Sangheili Field Marshall to escape through.  
Ya'kai sat in the middle of his cell, staring intently at his knuckles as he slowly waited for time to pass by as it always did. He had been situated in this particular cell for almost two days now, betrayed by his allies and attacked by the Storm faction.  
There was nothing to be done, not anymore; he knew his time was at an end, and there was nothing to be done about it. In a sense, the former shipmaster was glad it had finally come to an end, he had lived a long and fulfilling life; from his foolish actions as a youngling to his esteemed commendations as an elder.

A set of bars parted as the primary door into his cell opened, two sets of Sangheili boots entered the room loudly. Golden armour plating that was worn by Mort'ang, the Zealot who had sat by Ya'kai's side for near a decade; the same Zealot who had come to finish it all.  
"They are calling you a heretic now" The Royal Warrior spoke slowly, walking up to the Field Marshall's exposed back.

Ya'kai grunted, "I've been called worse" his voice was flat, no emotion or regret escaping his tone or composure.  
Mort'ang stopped for a second, he was unsure there was even a term worse than a heretic, "What could possibly be worse?"  
The Field Marshall turned around slowly, looking right up into the young Zealot's eyes, "A fanatic, a murderer and a traitor" He stared right at the Golden Warrior, as if he felt sorry for him.  
Mort'ang roared and immediately drew his energy sword in frustrated anger, the twin blades lighting up the entire room with energy and light. He stepped forward and loomed over his former master, "This blade has killed two demons, and now it will taste the blood of a heretic."

Ya'kai breathed in slowly, "Mort'ang, when this is all over and we both stand at the gates of our former brethren I want you to know one thing; you were like a son to me."

The Golden Zealot paused for a moment, resting his blade near his master's old and heavy frame.  
"Then it is time for me to gain my inheritance"

And without another word, the Zealot thrust his blade right through the frame of his master; letting purple blood seep down and splatter against the floor in a traumatising balance.


End file.
